Hero's rise
by Dark Faylan
Summary: After losing his parents, a young man discovered himself gifted with super powers and is now determined to find the murderer of his family and obtain vengeance. He will back off under no-conditions even if Superman should stand in his way. I don't own any of DC Universe or any anime characters mentioned. They are owned by their original creators.
1. Chapter 1

_I don't own any of DC Universe or any anime characters mentioned. They are owned by their original creators._

* * *

**Chapter 1 – A new beginning**

**New York**

**3:00 PM**

In a hospital chamber, a young man was talking with an old friend, maybe for the last time in this life.

"Arthur, are you listening?"

A tall black man in his thirties was looking at him with a worried expression. In this little room, he appeared as a giant, over 6,56 feet tall and with a muscular build. The only strange thing about him was his fashion sense: a blue shirt with white butterflies on it, black pants, red shoes with Flash sign on it and a cap with Wonder Woman emblem.

"Yeah, don't worry, Trent. I'm fine. The funerals took place two months ago. I had time to calm down and think about it. You got everything I asked you?"

"Yes, I got everything, but I still think you should give up that idea. You show me your powers, but it's Gotham, we're talking about, it's hell on earth, and even if you find the murderer of your family, if the Batman gets you, your life will end at Belle Reve."

The young man talking to him suddenly bellowed. "What other choice do I have? I lost everything, my future is compromised with that shit and I can't continue like that. They will come again when they understand our little "comatose patient" trick. I don't want to be in the witness protection program for the rest of my life."

"Sigh"

Trent's facial expression clouded even more "You're really like your father. It makes me remember my encounter with him, he was fearless too. Not even hesitating to set up a clinic in one of the most dangerous parts of the city. I respect your choice and would like to help you, but I just became a father…"

"Trent, I didn't ask you to come with me to Gotham. I know there are only two possible ends, either I found him and get my vengeance, or I die in a dark alley of Gotham, which should be the norm over there. Now give me that and go back to your wife and daughter, they're waiting for you."

The man took an envelope from his pocket: "There is everything you need inside, a new identity, bank account, an address in Gotham, school admission, everything.

My contact in the hospital will get it done tonight. Tonight, Arthur Reed will be legally dead… farewell Arthur."

The young man looks at him gratefully, shaking his hand. "Farewell Trent, I'll never forget what you did for me and my family."

Once Trent out, watching outside the window, his expression darkened with rage, and said in a whisper "No matter who you are or what you are, I'm coming and I'll make you feel the despair I felt that day."

**2 Months later**

**Gotham City **

**2: 47 AM**

A man was running in the back alley of Gotham, with a frightened expression plastered on his face. The only sounds were those from his panting breath and foot stepping on a water puddle.

"Stop running, I'll not kill you, I just want answers. The more you run, the more I'll make you suffer."

The man was trapped, a 3-meter wall in front of him; it was a dead end. He looked over his pursuer floating in midair.

He wore a black jacket with the hood on his head and a black cloth covering his mouth, leaving visible only his blue pair of eyes.

In a shivering voice, he responds, "I know who you are, you're on the newspaper, you'll send me to the hospital whatever I say."

With a grin, the pursuer said, "If your answers please me, I can be a pretty amiable guy, you know."

He lifts his arm and with a motion of his finger, the right leg of the man was bent at 90 degrees.

"Ahhh." That miserable thug howled under the pain of his broken bones.

"I need to sleep like everyone else, so if you could stop weeping and give me my answers, I'd be grateful."

"I don't know, I'm just a low-level henchman, stop it please, I swear I don't know" he howled to his tormentor with pain in his voice.

"Tell me who can give me my answers, talk!" the mysterious aggressor said, the fury in his voice resonated in the back alley as he bent the second long of his victim.

"The Dimitrov's… they have a lot of informants in New York… please stop" he said in pain. Leaving his eyes toward his persecutor, he saw nothing, he was alone in pain and unable to move in the back alley of Gotham.

**Next day **

**Gotham City**

**7:00 AM**

Tick Tick

"Fuck" a tired voice echoed as the annoying noise of the alarm clock resounded in a shabby apartment of 30m².

A black-haired young man gets up from the bed tiredly, he was tall, athletic, and seem 18, with a fair skin tone, 6 feet high, he could be handsome with a bit of attention and trimming his short hairs but his appearance is not on the priority list.

"I have to go to Gotham Academy every fucking day to keep up the appearances, but these little "party" at night are tiring me and with still no result."

Arthur, now Aiden Sharp started these aggressive questioning 2 weeks ago, seeing that being friendly with thugs, drinking with them and listening to rumors gave no results.

But he didn't lost his time, each day he trained his new abilities, enhancing his control.

After the death of all his family, the shock he received was a huge blow, physically and mentally, he has undergone excessive tiredness, headaches, stress, etc.

One day his headache became unbearable, as his pain reached its peak, he lifted all the furniture's in his hospital room in the air and made them fall on the ground all at once.

Seeing this, he tried his best to recreate and control it, at his first try, he was ecstatic and depressed, seeing he could barely lift a spoon even with all his efforts, but his brain is a muscle, with each passing day he became better, soon he could lift a chair, then his bed and after one month of effort he was able to lift a truck. Then come several objects, add velocity, etc.

Previously, he had to focus all his thought to use his telekinesis, but now with a simple thought, he can lift a truck in the air.

After coming to Gotham, every day after school and weekends were spent studying at the public library of Gotham. Trying to find how the brain was working, the limits of the human brain, the potential development of his abilities.

On the other hand, he watched TV series, movies, and anime to find new ways to use his telekinesis.

Now, he had a good grasp of his ability and the various way to use it, and hoped to gain new abilities if his brain was enhancing as his telekinesis did.

The only shadows on the equation were that he still has no hint to find his target and rarely used his precognition.

He obtained two abilities but used almost only his telekinesis; He created a detection technique, using telekinesis he vibrates the air at small speed in a dome shape in a radius of 20-meter. Using it, no one can use a sneak attack on him.

Thus, his precognition become almost useless to him.

They are limits to his ability of precognition. He can use it at will in the limit of his visual field but the further in time he tries to see, the more inaccurate are the results and the more taxing it is, so using it maximum in a 10 seconds scope to warn him of danger, became his defense system, that way he can use it hours straight without tiring.

To test it, he fought against a Thug in the street using his precognition during the entire fight and smashed the ex-marine. His father inscribed him in Krav-maga and Close Combat clubs in the past, with brilliants results. But the outcome shouldn't have been so obvious, he was unharmed, not even a scratch.

At 8:00 AM, he was at Gotham University "Trent and his bullshit, even after coming this far, he thought I could back off" he whispered to himself.

Aiden asked Trent to sign him up in a school at Gotham to keep up appearances, after all, someone who could hire assassins to kill his family who was pretty influential in New York had to be resourceful, if he learned that he was still alive, he would surely hire killers again.

Therefore, he chooses to blend in the mass of students, and not be the new guy in town without a job living in a luxurious apartment and with money from unknown sources.

But Trent treated it as a backup plan for Aiden, he registered him in one of the best and most prestigious universities, all the elites of the town are studying here.

"Sigh" taking his seat in the chemistry classroom he let a sigh.

"What an impressive motivation, if you were listening in class instead of gazing out of the window, your marks would be among the best of the class."

A gorgeous redhead girl speaks to him after sitting beside him. Each time he saw her he couldn't help but marvel at her sight. Long red hair, beautiful green eyes, and a perfectly proportionate body.

"Hello Barbara, you made a mistake it would not be among the best, I already am, I would be at the top of the class." He responded to her with a grin.

"No, at best you would be second, both of us know who would be at the top" she responded with a small grin.

"Ho, who would it be? I can't figure it out. Can you show me who would it be?" he responded cheekily.

"Sore loser" a small laugh escaped from her lips.

Barbara Gordon, a celebrity in Gotham because she is the daughter of Commissioner Gordon, perhaps the only uncorrupted cop in all the Police Department of Gotham, and known for his collaboration with Batman.

But she doesn't need her father's identity to be famous on the campus, she's the top of the class by a large margin, the most athletic girl, the belle of the university and someone easy to talk to.

He became acquainted with her at the public library of Gotham, as he researched how to use his power, he saw her every day, studying and taking notes.

They started to talk to each other when they learned they were studying at the same school, but for Aiden, it soon became clear that he should keep her at a reasonable distance.

Sometimes they talked about their inspiration's future projects, motivations, and soon he remarked an issue.

She's far too smart, she spotted some incoherence in his story, worse, she found some problem in him only while talking and observing him.

These problems were soon dissipated either because in her eyes he was a lambda student or by respect for his privacy.

But she's kind and search to help people If by mistake he let her see too much information and that she reports it to her father, he would be in deep shit.

Questions would rain on him; in helping him, he would be put in a tough spot.

"I see you after class at the library?" she asked him while sorting her affairs out of her bag.

"Yes, but I'll leave Sooner, I have something to do." He replied casually.

"You want to work in neuroscience? All the books I've seen you study are related to that subject and you're always taking notes." In her mind, that guy didn't listen at all in class, but still obtain great grades. If he studies so much neuroscience, he should have an incredible level worthy of the best schools.

"Yes, the topic is interesting" he replied flatly, she found herself the explanation to the question, something would be bothering if he tries something else, and he would have to create a lie who can hold in front of this sherlock girl.

"You have a particular interest in it? Usually, people who want to succeed this much in medicine have someone in their family who are ill or lost someone because of it."

"Not really, now it's my turn to ask the questions. Do you want to be the prettiest red-haired in town? Because Batgirl is giving you a tough competition, wearing a full costume in black latex. If you want to catch up you could copy her, I could give you my opinion at the fitting." He said with a roguish grin.

"I was right, you always do that." she said with a strange expression amused but a bit sad.

"What?"

"When you're going to talk about your past or your family, you turn around the conversation and become offending. You are protecting yourself by hurting others. It's pretty common.

In the beginning, I just thought you found it fun, but I saw you repeat the same process with others. The only reason I can think you do that is that the subject is hurtful for you.

That's also the reason why you are amiable to everyone, you don't want them to think of you that you are strange, and start asking questions.

I just wanted you to know that I know that I can be a bit indiscreet but I'll do my best to don't talk about it."

"The problem is that you analyze everything when you talk to someone sherlock, and now you have a PhD in psychology. And if you are so interested in psychology, we could also try to find an answer to the question of why Barbara Gordon has no social life outside school and the library."

"Sigh, your father should get you out of here and sign you up in the police. For my own and this city's sake."

A bright smile appeared on her lips as she said: "I already asked him, but according to him, one police officer in the family is sufficient."

"So, you already wanted to be a cop, no wonder you are so sharp."

"Silence, the class is starting, today we will study…" The professor exclaimed.

**6:00 PM**

**Public Library of Gotham**

Sitting at the same table with Barbara while reading books became a habit. Gotham may not be the best place to live, but the learning institutions of the city are still prestigious. The library isn't an exception, with its long-standing history, even rare books are exposed in showcases. Everything your searching for can be found here.

"Oh, that's rare, you're not studying scientific subjects, is it because of what I said this morning?"

"Partly, it's been a long time that I thought to learn other languages, it could help in my future work." Internally, he was overjoyed, she gave him the perfect shield to protect himself from her investigations.

"You're learning Russian. I don't remember them having a significant university in neuroscience, you should try to learn Spanish, maybe Japanese if you want to study abroad…."

"Wow, calm down, don't give more work than I already have. Everyone is not like you studying like crazy until falling from tiredness."

"What do you mean?" she asked slightly interested.

"You hide it very well, but I know when someone is lacking sleep, furthermore you often have bags under your eyes, so either you study like crazy which given your marks is logic or you're dancing around a pole, woefully that hypothesis seems unlikely, a loss for humanity." He said tearfully.

"Ok, stop your sarcasm. I understand I'll let you work, but I can give you a hand if you want to."

Stunned, he asked her a bit worried by her answer "Wait are you're saying you talk Russian…"

"очевидно"

"Fuck, what type of steroid are you taking, it's crazy, it's like your fifth language…"

"Sixth, I learned Chinese..." she said with a bright smile.

"Braggart" He couldn't help it. Aiden had always been proud of his learning capacity, but in front of her, he was nothing to speak off.

Aiden wanted to learn Russian to understand what people say when he "politely," asks them some questions or when he's spying some gangsters in the streets.

"I'm grateful for your help. I'll offer you a coffee as thank."

He doesn't take his school life seriously, but that girl is interesting and gorgeous, but Aiden has no plan to try to create a romantic relationship between him and her. Furthermore, something told him that his chances were slim.

He had only one goal, and once that goal achieved his life shouldn't be bright.

**1:00 AM**

**Dimitrov Family Estate**

**Gotham**

His last talk on the street led him to the Dimitrov family, but Aiden was not confident and even worried, because it was the same thing over the past 2 weeks, he "nicely" asks questions to a thug which lead to a guy from some mafia's family, which lead to another. In short, he was running in circles.

The problem is that previously he interrogated these henchmen's really fast and fled just as fast, worried that Batman would come. Not tonight, he will directly attack the headquarters and have a nice talk with the boss himself. To that end, he changed his modus operandi; he has to take risks to obtain answers, a real lead.

But he probably will have to fight against the Bat-family, and seeing Batman scoreboard against meta-humans, he was worried to be caught, and lose his chances to obtain vengeance.

"It's time. The first real step toward my revenge….and maybe the last." He murmured while watching his target from the top of a tower. After putting his hood on and hiding most of his face with a piece of cloth, he was ready.

Flying to the rooftop of the Dimitrov manor using his telekinesis, he opened a window from the inside and made his way discreetly to the Boss Office. Opening the door, he saw "Nobody, fuck where is that jackass, I'll have to explore all the mansion."

Roaming the manor, something bothered him, the security seemed too lax to be the house of a mafia boss.

Before arriving in what seemed a richly decorated living room, he was taken aback by what he saw will happen even if unconsciously he feared that it could happen.

Nonetheless, he nonchalantly opened the door.

"A wall of gun…. So cool! On the other side, why was I stupid enough to let him go conscious? I should have made him fall in a coma…. but how do I do that, to begin with?" he wondered internally.

"You're the bastard who tortured peoples all over Gotham in the past 2 weeks, `Gotham Tormentor' as called you the press. You'll regret pointing your fangs toward me…. Shoot this bastard!"

A fit man in a wearing a tuxedo gave the order, a glass of whiskey in hand.

In an instant, all sounds were covered up by hundreds of gunshots.

Over 20 men pressed the trigger of their guns, he saw various caliber "M16, AK-47, P90 and many others. Good equipment you have here."

He was totally unfazed.

"What's that you shouldn't be that strong, you didn't move, it's impossible" was the words of the boss of the Dimitrov Family, a dumbfounded expression plastered on his face as he backed away against a wall.

"Yeah, sorry, I never revealed my full strength with any tugs, I even feigned weakness after using my power… you see, I have to take precautionary measures against all the fans of bats wearing latex. I hadn't expected it to help me today, who knows what you would have prepared for me if you knew. As for my hand's movement; It's just for fun, Jedi style." He said smilingly as several hundred bullets were suspended in midair, showing no signs of movements.

"You can take it back, I don't like gifts." he left his hands, all the bullets turned around and in an instant, they all housed inside either their leg or arm. The room became noisy, due to the sounds of groaning men holding their limbs as blood flowed out.

"Now you and I should have a nice conversation, I ask, you answer and not the other way around. Understood?"

"You're dead! Asshole, I'll..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, it's time for the cliché, but before that" using his powers, he moved the bullet inside the body of the leader.

"Ow… what is that?!"

"I'm moving the bullet in your body, genius. You should feel it. So, where were we? Oh yeah, I ask and you answer, understood?" All the guns on the floor started to float and point in the gangster's directions. "You will not interrupt us guys? We're civilized people."

He nodded.

They nodded.

"Good. First, you'll give me access to all your nasty secrets. Then, do you know who based in Gotham sent an assassin in New York in the last six months? I want also the names of the assassins."

"I only heard rumors, a lot of things occurred in New York some months ago, it's not Gotham but the criminality rate isn't low. I know that some mercenaries were in the sector, such as Deathstroke and his daughter, the League of Assassins played a role at some time, even the alien Lobo was seen fighting the Titans."

"You have nothing more specific in mind…. What is that?" watching the folders in the laptop, he found something unexpected, he took out the hard drive from the laptop and smiled at the crying fellow in front of him.

"Interesting, well, I found something useful; I don't need you anymore, Goodnight." He knocked them out with his telekinesis and tied up the Boss using a metal pipe that was inside the wall and destroyed his laptop, threw the fragments in the fireplace after sending their secrets to the media.

As he was leaving, he was shot by the henchmen's stayed put outside, but he just sent them to fly with a thought and destroyed their guns into pieces. "I hope will not come across… Batman and his sidekicks…. My luck is the worst."

In front of him stood Batman, the Batmobile in the background, Batgirl and Robin were on the manor roof behind him.

He had to admit that in the dark night with the public lights barely revealing the surroundings; they were just awesome in their super costumes.

Batman in grey with a black mask covering most of his head, boot, and a cap, with a stoic expression on the part of his face that was left visible. The only thing that made him visible in the dark was his belt.

"Let me guess, it's because of the gunshots" he talked to them humorously while modifying his voice using the air vibration with his telekinesis.

"Congrats, you're a genius." Replied Robin with irony.

He instantly used his telekinesis to block a projectile coming in front of him suspending it in midair, it was a batarang, he didn't saw Batman move but without his precognition, the fight would be already finished.

"Fuck it's dangerous, you could…shit."

He propelled the batarang away before it expelled some kind of gas, once again his precognition saved him. Before he could recover his breath, Robin and Batgirl jumped from the roof, targeting him from both sides. Aiden blocked their attacks creating a telekinesis wall, but it didn't last long as Batman took out a tube shape tool out of his belt emitting a deafening sound, destabilizing his concentration and neutralizing his telekinesis.

He was forced to fight Batgirl and Robin in a hand to hand fight.

Relying only on his precognition, he succeeded to barely save the day. Dodging most of the blows and counter-attacking when he saw an opening. Their costume was hard as hell, maybe some kind of Kevlar, each blow that lands on them were lessened, on the other hand, he felt each of their blows.

They were better trained than him, and their fighting style was acrobatic. Furthermore, they were 2 against 1; It was really hard to deal a blow on them even with precognition.

Feigning ease, he did the sole thing that can calm him down "Guys, what's the problem with your costumes, is it some kind of Kevlar? You're moving nicely in it, but Kevlar shouldn't. Can you tell me where you bought it? I want one." Dodging a punch from Robin, he starts to talk without stopping.

"Hey Batgirl, I love the design of your costume. You did it yourself ? Your tastes are pretty good." He caught her leg and threw her away as she tried to kick him.

Her costume was really good looking, blue with a tinge of violet, a golden bat emblem on the torso and golden color gloves, inner cloak, belt and to top it, beautiful ginger glossy hairs flowing out of her mask similar to the bat-mask. Overall, the costume was shape hugging, a feast for the eyes.

"Robin, yours seems coming straight out from a circus, in the dark, you are visible. You don't want to use stealth or you don't know what it is?" Rolling on the ground to evade a fury of blows he continued his little speech before punching Robin in the chin.

He finally got an answer from Robin on an annoyed tone. "Shut it, you're as annoying as Flash."

Continuing to evade the blows, he continued to talk while mentally searching a solution "Oh Flash, yeah, pretty cool guy, a business model, do you know he is in pizza delivery business?"

He seemed to hear a slight giggle from Batgirl but wasn't sure.

He had a hard time catching his breath, and when batman joining the brawl, he received a punch in the nose followed by a knee kick in the stomach which sent him flying, Batman blows were really heavy.

"Wow, that hurt." Lifting his aching body from the floor just in time to evade a kick from Batgirl coming from above "By the way, where did you buy the car, it looks like a supercar and a tank, the union of useful and agreeable, I want that too."

Once again, Robin's voice echoed. "You never shut up, do you?"

"No, it reminds me that I'm still alive."

"From who do you want to avenge?" He finally heard the voice of Batman, and man, what a voice. That man is the living definition of awesome.

"You're quick-witted, that's Batman for you. As to who I want to kill, that's my business."

His deep voice echoed once again. "It's not too late to stop. You can obtain justice for what has been done to you. You'll go to jail but once your sentence served, you'll be able to restart anew." During that short conversation, the hero discreetly placed a tracker on him.

"I don't want justice; I want to see the despair on the face of that bastard as I torture him till death!" he howled his voice filled with wrath.

Aiden already found a plan to deal with Batman gadgets in the future, but now he couldn't use it, he had to find a way, and so did he. He suddenly slapped his ears, which during a short lapse of time deafened him, giving him the calm to focus and use his telekinesis to destroy Batman gadgets.

"Excuse me, but I have something else to do. See you later." Aiden said and took off the ground before flying away with all he had, but he heard behind him the sound of a car traversing Gotham at a prodigious speed.

He zigzagged, through the streets hoping to leave them behind but he was wrong, as he heard a peculiar sound, he looked behind him "Bikes? Where does it come from?" he was stupefied what he read on the internet about Batman resourcefulness wasn't some fanboy bragging.

He took out the tracker that Batman put on him during the fight; He detected it the instant he got back his powers, planning to use it as a way to let the superhero behind him. "Now it's time for Batman home delivery to Double Face gang."

Previously, he heard about a meeting when he "nicely" asked these past few days. He planned to lead Batman at a reunion of the Double Face gang and some others and let him behind during the chaos, then destroy the tracker or place it on someone else.

After a short flight, the abandoned factory that will host the reunion appeared in front of him, one of many in Gotham, which became with time the favorite places for criminals.

Speeding up, he broke through the wall with his telekinesis protecting him like a bubble, it was like a bulldozer, a part of the wall fell on the gang's members who howled in pain. "Home delivery, it's a gift, don't need to thank me, I hope you like it." Yelling that he didn't slow down in the slightest and gone through another wall, creating another aperture.

"IT'S BATMAN!"

"KILL HIM!"

"OPEN FIRE!"

The sound of Gunfire resounded through the cold night, with flickering illuminating the factory.

"Man, how popular can he be, no one knows me, I'm a poor anonymous" laughing aloud, he saw a van departing the factory, with a bright smile on his face he put the tracker on the van with his telekinesis "how generous am I might become a saint one day."

Hearing the sounds of gunfire diminishing, and the groaning of men's growing in number, he fled the factory flying in the sky. "Gotham is hell on earth but it's beautiful at night, all those skyscrapers in the dark illuminating the view."

Aiden took his time to go back home, in his civilian clothes he strolled around from one bar to another while emitting his detection field at his maximum capacity in his actual condition, after 2 hours of strolling he felt nothing, he went back to his apartment still maintaining his vigilance.

It was almost 4:00 AM and he couldn't help but think to the files he obtained at the Dimitrov manor: his parents bought new identity to the Dimitrov's twenty years ago; He found it by chance but he couldn't help but think about it again, again and again.

He hypothesized its months ago, just after their deaths, after all someone paid to see them dead.

Why? He asked himself this question an incalculable number of times.

Had they provoked someone they shouldn't?

Was it about money?

Had his parents taken part in something illegal?

But soon some of these questions were answered, he obtained the legacy without a hitch via Trent, and with Trent's contacts had in the NYPD, he found that his parents never had problems with justice and were never suspected of anything.

But with this revelation, new questions emerged: Who were they? What was their true name? Did they flee from someone all those years ago? Etc.

He had problems to sleep; he didn't even change his clothes reeking of sweat, in fact, he couldn't the pain was horrible he just lied down on his bed and finally fell asleep after some time.

**7:00 AM**

Tick Tick

Seeing the numbers on the alarm clock he thought to skip classes "With that pain, I can't go to…. Wait! Why don't I feel any pain" scanning his torso he marveled seeing his perfectly healthy skin "there are no bruises, no scars... I have a healing factor!"

Overjoyed, he started to exclaim loudly "Oh yeah, this is awesome…"

"Silence." He heard the voice of his grumpy neighbor always howling at him through the wall.

"Oh, shut up, just focus on your can of beer."

He dressed up and readied to go to the university, while thinking on the way, to who were his parents, and how to find more clues.

On the way, he discovered why he could let Batman behind him so easily, the Riddler had taken hostages to force Batman to play with him, he was soon beaten to a pulp and sent to Arkham Asylum, the others headlines were about the scandals of the Dimitrov family, some reporter even entitled "Gotham Tormentor - vigilante?".

All this news put a smile on his face.

Aiden barely listened in class preoccupied with these new questions harassing his thoughts, and establishing a counter-strategy against Batman gadgets, he also decided to train his physicals skills. He could win a lot of fights with his powers, but once he loses them, his precognition becomes his last defense.

He found a way to counter the effects of Batman gadget by creating a bubble around his ears to block all external sounds to protect him from Batman trick.

He decided to use the methods he developed in the past for combat, he can't restrain his strength against the Bat-family, even if they are normal humans, they are formidable opponents, far more experimented than him.

Enveloping his body in a thin film of air to protect him from harm and boosting the impacts from his blows. He also theoretically created a new way to interrogate people by exerting a slight pressure on the center of fear in the brain and many others. In the past he was worried to lose control and cause irreversible damage to his opponents, he only wants to kill the culprit of his parent's death not everyone in sight.

"You come to the library after class?" his stunning beauty of a classmate asked him that question while taking notes.

"No, I have some family problems to cope," he replied in a flat tone still gazing outside.

She seemed surprised as she raised her face and said in exaggeration, "Wow, Aiden Sharp and his mysterious family, maybe we'll see Superman in Gotham?"

"Ah-ah, I'm dying from laughter, too bad there is no grade for humor, you would finally get an F."

She replied him pridefully "Everyone laugh to my jokes; I have no equals."

"Yes, I confirm, they are as deadly as those of the Joker."

She pouted and showed her fists, "I'll punch you one day, and you'll regret."

"Oh, it would be a good idea, you could form a duo with Batgirl, `the redhead duo specialized in kicking ass' while we talk of it, have you thought to my idea to try on a latex suit?" He asked with a dark grin.

For an answer, he received a powerful kick in the leg.

"What was that? Your legs are in titanium? Shit, you could be less forceful, it hurt."

She laughed at him playfully. "No, I learned taekwondo, Muay-thaï, and a few other styles, you want to try? I can teach you."

"No, once is enough. You're sure to have a brain and not a hard drive up there?" rubbing his legs he told her "One day I'll pay you back, you'll see."

"Any time."

**Aiden Apartment**

**7:00 PM**

Back home, he searched all the personal stuff his parents left behind, that is to say not much, he found some trinkets belonging to his dead mother, the favorite jacket of his father.

He started to lose hope until he found his old family photo album, but yet again he found nothing, there was nothing that goes back further his birth.

"No, there has to be something."

Angered but not despaired by the results, he started to disassemble everything, tearing the jacket apart hoping to find a secret pocket, the trinkets, watches and everything of value was reduced into pieces and started to sort out all the photos from the album.

Here was the jackpot he found two photos hidden behind others, they showed peoples looking like doctors surrounded by skinny people in a poor living condition, maybe a humanitarian camp, after all, his father was a doctor, but none of the persons on the photos were his parents or appeared him even remotely familiar. Words were written at the back with a date "Camp #6, Bialya, 12 September"

Sigh "Another clue, another mystery to solve, couldn't it be easier?"

* * *

**Hello everyone, it's my first-time writing fanfiction or a novel. I hope you'll like it.**

**English is not my birth tongue, so if you see something you can tell me, I'll correct it.**

**If you have advice or tips for me, I'll be thankful. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - Concealed Past**

Lying on the bed, he continued to watch the photo searching for more details.

While scrutinizing the photo, his thoughts were on "Bialya". Which became "Greater Bialya", a country of the middle east, unstable, were several civil wars broke out and controlled by a dictator, Queen Bee.

After some Internet research, he found that Bialya is a militaristic dictatorship ruled with an iron fist and did not signed the UN's Justice League charter.

The investigation about camp #6 bore no results, never mentioned in any news reports or testimony. Finding a ghost could be easier.

"Is it some state secret? But it looked like a humanitarian camp, why would they hide it? Had illegal experiences happened?" with the Reach scandal last year, this assumption soon came to his mind. "Did my parents escape from the camps? The perpetrator should come from Bialya in that case."

Staring at the ceiling, he muttered, "Mom, Dad, who were you?"

**_Flashback – 3 months earlier_**

"You're finally up. I thought you were dead." Arriving in the kitchen, his dad told his every morning joke.

"Yes dad, but think about other jokes, it starts to be boring." Arthur said before sitting at the table and biting a toast.

"I'll think about it. Don't come back late tonight, you may have a girlfriend but I don't want it to impact your studies." His father replied to him, his eyes still focused on the news of "The Daily Planet."

"Let him be, his grades have always been good, and I like that girl." Sandra Reed, his mother told his father, while sitting at the table with her cup of coffee, "On which topic is Lois Lane article today?".

"An interview of Karren Star from Starrware Industries."

"She's a passionate reporter. I like to read her articles about LexCorp." A mischievous smile appeared on her face.

"Mom, everyone knows that you love scandals, even the neighbors know." He replied while shaking his head.

"People love scandals, that's why all journalists are hunting for a scoop."

"Yeah, that's not to denounce corruption." Sarcasm was his favorite form of communication.

"You're too naïve, son." His father told him while looking at him, "They're always a hidden side, remember that."

"You're strange today, usually you preach me when I broke the rules. I'll go back from school around 10:00 PM."

"Don't be late. I don't want to be a grandmother yet. I'm too young for that."

His parents were not exactly caring parents, they cared about their rules and their work over everything else. So much that sometimes he only sees them on morning as they spent the night at the clinic.

They didn't shower him with gifts nor they talk about their everyday life or the past. Sometimes, he found that they repeat a lot. Almost every morning, the topics of conversation were the same. He sometimes thinks they should develop their social life, at least they would gain some conversations subject.

On the way to high school, in the metro, he saw his parent's old friend, a titan with an eccentric fashion sense.

"Hi, Trent! Already working?"

Trent took him in a warm embrace while a big hand rubbed his hair "Hello little guy. On your way to see your girlfriend?"

"I've school."

"You could skip class." Nonchalant a usual, he responded while eying a girl.

"I don't know how my strict parents can be friends with someone as casual as you." Follow his gaze he saw a girl. "What's the problem with that girl? You want to take her to the hotel?"

"Remove that smirk from your face little shrimp." quieting down, he continued, "Her mother hired me to follow her, she's skipping class every few days."

Arthur was startled, no flabbergasted "You're following her, that's a joke. I thought it was your casual clothes. I hadn't expected that you were working in it."

This time it was Trent's turn to be surprised "What's the problem with my clothes, it's perfectly fashionable."

"It remains to be proved. How can you follow someone in these clothes? You're more eye-catching than a fugitive in an orange suit!"

"It's called "to hide in plain sight,", you're right to go to school, you have still much to learn." He descended at the next stop, putting on a dark blue vest with a white Batman logo on the back.

Watching him depart, he wondered, "How can he maintain any credibility as a private detective."

Trent Jeffords was an old friend from his family; they met him when moving in New-York. An ex-policeman, he resigned after a traumatic event he never told anybody. Trent married his wife last year and will be a father in a few months.

10 minutes later, he arrived at school, nothing special about it, nor prestigious, nor boasting an old history, a common high school of New York.

Arthur was an exemplary student, among the best, furthermore pushed toward studies by his parents, his results were high. His look was good, by the second year, he got himself a girlfriend. Jessica Han was a blond girl, of short stature and smart. She was adopted at 4 years old by a Chinese couple.

They hit off well together, met on several parties and soon started to hang out together.

"You'll go to the party to celebrate the championship victory tonight?" it was her first phrase, and he knew where she wanted to lead the conversation.

"No, or I'll have to hold your hairs as you throw up in the bathroom. I know what you want to say, should we go to your house? Your parents are not here for two days left, no one will disturb us."

It was clear; she didn't like to drink but the only time she drank; he drank with her which led to their first time, told by everyone to be unforgettable; He totally forgot it. But waking up in the same bed, they started over until their phone started to vibrate like crazy because of their parent's worry.

Her face took a deep shade of red; he loved her shyness. "Yes, why not?" she replied with false ease.

"Giggle", he ceased laughing seeing her pouting.

After school, they took the bus to her home, where they were soon busy entangled in the bed until exhaustion.

"You're not that shy anymore, seem more like a tigress." Laughing while caressing her back, he put a kiss on her collarbone. "Ouch, don't bite me. I was praising you." It seems he jested too much.

"I'll bite you much lower next time." A small laugh escaped her lips.

"Not a chance. I'll bite you much lower, not the other way around." They heard the deafening sound of an explosion as they wanted to resume their activities.

"Boom."

Putting up his clothes on, he opened the curtain at the window and saw a battle scene.

"Watch that, it's the Titans and the white alien that ripped apart the little alien impersonating a guy of the United Nations." Arthur was excited; he always liked superheroes, and here in front of him were the Titans.

He saw Nightwing in a black costume with a blue symbol; Starfire orange from head to toe with a purple attire flying around while emitting some energy; There was also Darkstar previously known as Wonder Girl, now the new one is blond, she was wearing a black suit with steel parts, a shield and a sword; a sort of pterodactyl that should be Beast Boy and Raven clad in black only revealing her pale face and thighs.

The white alien, the Justice League called him Lobo in a press conference. He was howling "Keezy fem" at Starfire before punching her in the head.

"Keezy fem? I would like to know what it means."

Jessica put her hands on his back while saying, a tad angered, "Yeah you love superheroes, but you ruined the mood."

Turning around, he saw her pissed off face "Oh…. Yes…. You're not wrong."

The later stage of the fight happened elsewhere, it moved away bit by bit. They could finally resume where they left it.

He went back home by midnight, prepared to listen to the nagging of his parents. They were strict, break a rule, and the consequences will be dire.

Getting off the taxi, he saw that the lights were still on, as usual, he would not be spared and was prepared to be preached until 3:00 AM.

"Mom, Dad, I know I've promised you to be back by 10:00 PM but…" His voice derailed, his thoughts slipped away from his mind, he felt numb, there was no sound as if the world became mute as his mind faded in the dark.

Arthur woke up 3 days later in a hospital room, he was in excruciating pain. Soon after his awakening, a doctor stepped into the room. "Hello Arthur, I…."

His mind was numb; he didn't realized the flow of time after the doctor visit.

He has been shot in the chest; It missed the heart by a hair, his parents were dead, a bullet each in the heart, a neighbor found him. It was an assassination, no theft, no rummage, …

Hearing that, his mind was left in a fog, he stayed in the room, unmoving during hours as his gaze was locked on his chest wrapped in a bandage.

After that day, he suffered headaches which caused extreme pain. Not only this, he was exceedingly tired, sleeping almost twenty hours a day.

And one day, it snapped, all the pieces of furniture were floating in front of him. He was marveling at this sight, reaching his hand, he tried to grab the bottle of water floating in midair and…. it stopped.

Everything fell to the floor in a clatter.

Immediately, sounds of running's foot came across the door, and a nurse stepped in with a frown "You again, can't you stop your tantrum, it'll change nothing to the situation." She berated him before cleaning up the mess and left leaving the door open.

His mind was clear, no headaches, freed of fatigue. It was a wonderful sensation, his thoughts evolved, and it became like an anthill, everything working at peak efficiency.

He checked that no one was coming this way and locked the door. He focused his thoughts to try to raise the water bottle for thirty minutes but not to avail. He shifted his target to the plastic spoon, and the miracle happened, it soared up slowly and wavered in the air.

"Unbelievable."

After that, every day became a training day, and the changes were easy to notice. Each day passing, one after the other strengthening him. It wasn't the only change as the day passed, a thought emerged and grew into an obsession; "I can kill them, I can have my revenge".

The final push to put him down the road of vengeance came with Trent. "Arthur, I've bad news I'm sorry. An old friend from the police told me they closed the case."

He was flabbergasted, "It was not even two weeks ago. It's far too quick."

"Yes, it's weird. There is only one explanation; someone is putting pressure to close the case."

"Who? Who is it?" He lifts from the bed, catching Trent by the arm.

Trent put him down the bed while telling him, "I don't know, it's far too high in the hierarchy. I only know that it came from Gotham City. Whoever it is, he was, or is at Gotham."

"Trent, could you do something for me?"

"No, I know what you want to ask. You want vengeance, but you're powerless, the person who did that won't hesitate a second to kill you. Try to live on." He told him with a feeble smile.

"Live on until what?" Arthur bellowed "Until they come back and kill me?"

"Arthur, listen to me. I'm a detective. I will find them and obtain justice."

"Are you kidding me? They forced the NYPD to shut up. You can shove your justice deep into your ass!" it enraged him, but he still succeeded calming down.

"If I show you I'm not powerless, will you help me?" he stared deep in his eyes with an iron determination.

"Show me what?"

Lifting his hand, Trent's wallet flew out of his pocket and became stable in midair, then all his cards and banknotes started to move out one after another and commenced to swirl for thirty seconds before coming back to their original position.

"I discovered it six days ago. I could barely levitate a plastic spoon for twenty seconds before it fell to the ground. Now, will you help me?"

Trent looked at him for half a minute before showing a resolved expression "I want to know your plan first."

"I wish you to help me die." It took an hour to convince Trent to support him.

The first step was to produce a false suicide attempt which will become a coma with Trent's contact help. It would give him time to develop and hone his telekinesis.

The second and final step was the death of Arthur Reed, which will give birth to Aiden Sharp.

It was the beginning of his revenge.

**Present Day**

**Gotham**

The alarm clock woke him up at 6:00 AM with tears rolling from his eyes.

"It's been a long time since I dreamt about the past."

Lifting from the bed, he took his breakfast and put on sport garments while performing all the chores simultaneously with his telekinesis. It was a great gain of time and more efficient than domestics robots.

Running, he headed toward Robinson Park in the chilly morning air of Gotham.

He devised a new training routine to power up his hand to hand combat skills; this new routine was a classic training with something special. During the exercise, he stimulated his muscles with his telekinesis to fasten the process and to get a better equilibrium of his muscles to obtain a body made for fighting; in theory, but the process would take months.

He wavered as to learn a new fighting style in a dojo, but it would take at least several months to learn a new martial art, even more time to master it, even if he was a prodigy.

He must boost his combat skills rapidly. The only realist choice was to perfect his mastering over the martial arts he already knows. Even if he couldn't attain Batman level as a martial artist, he could strengthen with his new training trick.

Training in his small apartment wasn't an option; he trained at Robinson Park, which was the territory of Poison Ivy some years ago, but now that she's in Arkham Asylum. The park returned to his previous users; many people were practicing sport here.

It was Saturday; he had all the time necessary, but contrary to usual, he didn't gone to the public library to study with Barbara. He trained until midday, then bought a sandwich in town, he then took the direction of the Bialyan quarter of Gotham, but before that he heads back to his apartment to retrieve the photography.

The Bialyan quarter is not well known outside of Gotham because the population was far less than Gotham Chinatown. It commenced approximately fifty years ago, with the first civil war Bialya sustain in the twentieth century. Later on, twelve years ago, another vague of immigrants came to Gotham with the ascent of Queen Bee to power.

His afternoon would be devoted to discovering what was camp #6 and who were the individuals on the picture. If he identifies them, he may find what he is looking for.

On the Internet, he discovered that camp #6 and everyone related to it are untraceable. His mind was running wild, his parents were murdered and now he discovers a phantom subject;He may have found a huge secret and his parents were sitting on it all this time.

If that secret was so significant, they could have tried to do something. Why didn't they tried to denounce it at the United Nations? Was his target so influential that he can influence the United Nations? It seems unlikely, even if someone is powerful and respected, they'll always be a rival, someone jealous of his success and ready to pull him down.

The Bialyan quarter wasn't different from the rest of Gotham, except for the restaurants and the population, all the buildings were in the same old style of Gotham.

"Excuse me, I…." He tried to ask someone on the street but was overlooked. It wasn't surprising, if someone you don't know approach you in Gotham's street, except for the rich quarters, you would hasten up your pace and left him behind because there is fifty-fifty chance for him to be a thief.

Aiden started over, but the results were the same. "Why do I have the impression of canvassing?"

After two hours of failure, he was tired and sweating. Today was a sunny day, to cool down he got in a bar and bought a beer. The bar was neat and tidy; the clients were few this afternoon.

"Thanks for the cold drink, you're saving me." He talked to the barman while peering at the old photo.

The barman was a typical Bialyan in his fifties with a slight accent. Approaching Aiden, he told him discreetly, "Young man, follow me to the backroom. I have something to tell you."

Raising his head, he saw the man staring at him, he doesn't seem to be a bad guy and even if he were one, he could make him pass through the wall. He nodded his head and got up from the barstool.

"Lucy, take care of the bar. I have to discuss something in the backroom."

Arriving at the backroom, the barman turned around and told him, "You should stop your investigations, or you'll die."

Frowning, he asked, "Is it a threat?"

"No, you misunderstood. These camp dating from before Queen Bee rise to power are a taboo subject. The only thing you'll found is death. I wanted to warn you, my brother died for the same reason." He was sad and his voice was trembling.

"Please tell me what you know." His voice hastened, that person has the answers.

"I already told you. There is only death. Thirty years ago, when I was still living in Bialya, I heard rumors about takedowns on villages all around Bialya. According to the rumors, they sent the captives to various camps, where they were subject to inhuman experiences.

In those days, I was a fearless young man wanting to help his people in reporting the living conditions to the international press. I found my way to one of those camps with my informant's help." He made a pause and emptied a glass of whiskey before resuming "What I saw that day is still haunting my nightmares; I couldn't approach the camp, but I saw movements outside the camp. Some soldiers were throwing corpses in a mass grave." He emptied another glass.

"I think you should slow down with the whiskey."

"I'm not proud of it. I fled. I left the country. The soldiers saw us but we managed to flee. After that I tried to report it, I wrote an article and gave it to a foreign reporter. The next day, it was my village that was raided, I was at the neighboring town with my brother, when we came back, it was desert, bodies were rotting here and here. Some died by gunshots, other by mutilation…"

His voice derailed, and alcohol didn't help it make it clear. Aiden lied him down on the couch while taking his glass away.

"We fled the country. Once in Gotham, my brother wanted to report it. He thought that here, no one could block us to warn the media. He was wrong. I never saw him again after he departed to the United Nations building."

"You don't have to be ashamed; you did everything you could. It's not your fault." He fell asleep while crying.

Watching his reaction, Aiden knew in what kind of mess he stepped on: a huge deadly mess.

The barman woke up ten minutes later. "I'm sorry, but now you know you should stop."

"These camps still exist? Did you know someone on this photo?"

"No, I heard from others that when Queen Bee rose to power, these camps were demolished."

Aiden thanked the man, paid his tab and left the bar, outside it was already dark.

Leaving the bar, he was in disarray. Were his parents being prisoners in that camp? Were they kidnapped while helping people? How have they fled? Who commanded this camp? Did his powers come from these experiences?

That conversation gave him more questions than answers.

"I have to find more. I need a name." Heading back home, Aiden was motivated start again tomorrow.

**Batman POV**

**Batcave**

**6:00 PM**

In the Batcave, only the training sounds of Barbara and Tim were heard.

Bruce Wayne was lost in thought while looking at the computer screens. It was rare of him.

Since the battle with "Gotham Tormentor" he frequently reminisced his own past.

"I don't want justice; I want to see the despair on the face of that bastard as I torture him till death!"

This phrase reverberated in him; In the past he could have told the same words. The loss of his parents drove him to the edge; It was the key factor that made him the Batman.

"What are you thinking about? Seeing you that way, it seems important."

Dick appeared behind him in his costume of Nightwing full black with a blue eagle symbol.

"Dick, you finally came back. I hadn't expected the break you mentioned to Kaldur would be fighting crimes in another team."

"No, it's not about the Team. I needed a blast of fresh air after Wally death. But I discovered that I'm not made for vacation. So, I gathered a bunch of people who didn't belonged either to the Team or the Justice League and created the Titans."

Dick was talking, sitting on a handrail while watching Batgirl and Robin fighting each other. Behind him scrawled the Batcave on three levels. It looked at the same time like a high-tech headquarters and a museum. They were all the equipment necessary to fight crime, a high-tech laboratory worthy to be among the best, a training space with all imaginable equipment and a garage with all the vehicles, Batmobile, bikes, helicopters, …

On the other side were the mementos of all Batman opponents and dangerous items that were too hazardous to be left to others.

"You eluded my question. What are you thinking?"

"Sigh" He stood and headed to the training space watching the training of his apprentices.

"A new player appeared in Gotham two months ago, you surely heard of it "Gotham Tormentor."

Lifting his brows, Dick explained, "Yes, I heard, he tortures peoples in the street to obtain answers. From what I know, he should have a telekinetic power."

"Yes, that's him. We confronted him two days ago."

Seeing his mentor pause surprised Dick. "What happened? Was he that strong?"

"No, I neutralized his powers with a little trick and his hand to hand skill were barely average." He paused again "He was like you Dick, like me, like us. He wanted vengeance."

"What? You want to help him like you helped me?" Dick was astonished by his assumption.

"No, it's easier to convince a thirteen-year-old boy than a young man. He would be too stubborn, I want to stop him, to put him on the right track." Crossing his arm, he turned around toward the computer.

Nightwing followed behind and asked "What did you saw in him? Many people were in that situation, such as Katana, Harley or Tally Man.

He may not come back on the right side, even you have wavered whether to kill Joe Chill and the Joker after Jason's supposed death."

"If I have the possibility to avoid it, I would like to avoid the emergence of another super criminal." Batman replied in a flat tone while typing on the computer.

"You're hiding something, I'm sure of it. I may not have Tim talent as a detective but I know you, there is something else."

"I felt it, his burning rage. He lost his parents. I am certain of it. I was in the same situation and I think there is still hope for him."

"Clark once told about you that you should be a killer, you should want to tear the world apart for what the death of your parents but your turn pain into hope." Remembering the past, he quoted the Man of Steel.

"He said this about you before, but you have to know that not everyone is as strong as you."

"It sounds like Clark, but I think I am right. The Tormentor handed over some criminals to the police and gave all the secrets of the Dimitrov family to the media."

"If he goes past the point of non-return, you'll have to send him to Belle Reve, or even worse, to Arkham."

"Stop, Dick, you know like me that there is no point of non-return. Among us, some did worse than him, Green Arrow, Big Barda, and many others. Lex Luthor created your friend Superboy."

"You seem soft you didn't change personality with Clark? Usually it would be Diana or Clark that would persuade you to give a chance to those with doubtful history."

"Keep your jokes to yourselves, and it was me who persuaded them most of the time, it was me who gave her chance to Artemis." Bruce replied with a slight smile. "I have work to do. I know from Dimitrov that the Tormentor is searching for active assassins in New York area in the past six months."

"You already discovered his identity?"

"No, something strange happened. I found nothing. Not a trace."

"What?" Dick knew the skills of his mentor to solve a mystery, if Batman found nothing, it means that the Tormentor target knew how to cover his traces even to the Justice League.

"In the past six months several murders took place in New York, you should know more than I. You're active over there now. I searched every case; Most were solved by the NYPD, I linked up two with the League of Assassins, and the rest are still unsolved.

Among these cases, I searched for victims with sons, among these, I located every family member.

If his parents were murdered in the last six months, the case was erased, I found no informatics trace of erasure, Barbara double-checked. It's like if the case was never opened, to begin with. Furthermore, there was no news in the media."

"You have a lead on who could be behind this ?"

"Maybe Luthor, Argus, the League of shadows, the possibilities are vast, but without a starting point it will be difficult. If I want to help him, I need everything he knows."

"Something is telling me he will not agree."

"Then I must convince him."

Behind them, the door of the elevator opened and Alfred Pennyworth stepped out with cold drinks on a tray.

"Thanks Alfred, there's nothing better than a cold drink after training." Batgirl approached him seemingly exhausted.

"The pleasure is mine miss Barbara." Giving their drinks to Barbara and Tim, he stepped toward Bruce and Dick "Sir, I hope you don't forget the Gala of the Wayne Foundation next week. You have to be present." A bit of blame was heard in the voice of the old butler.

"Alfred, you know perfectly that I have better to do than go to a gala accompanied by models."

"Sir, can ask you when was the last time that Bruce Wayne showed up at an evening party ?"

Bruce had no time to respond as Dick interjected with a smile. "A long time ago."

"Putted that way, Alright, I'll go."

* * *

**The story is based on Earth-16 one year after the end of season 2, but with slight differences, some alien's characters arrived to earth, the age of some characters are different such as Barbara Gordon.**

**Earth-16 is mostly untap, I can create without worry. The world and some characters situation are interesting at the end of season 2, for example Nightwing.**

**The story will not follow the show from now on, I 'm just using it as a base.**

**Warning, the MC will not join the Young Justice League.**

**The first part of the story (vengeance) should end at chapter 8.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – Party Start**

* * *

**4 Days Later**

**Gotham**

**Aiden Apartment**

A cry of anger echoed in his little apartment.

"Who the hell are they? Fuck!"

"Shut up!" For the first time of the day he heard the voice of his neighbor through the wall, but not the first time in the week, far from it.

"Let me be, alcoholic, or do you want a bloody nose?" he was already angered by his identification problem, it was much more than he could support.

Silence.

That was it, his neighbor is a loudmouth with no balls.

"Internet bore no results, interrogations neither. I would like to be one of those hackers of movies who can find whoever they want. I'll have to continue pointlessly until lady luck smile at me." Aiden's mood was under the weather in the last four days. He found absolutely nothing about the persons in the photos. "Sigh, it's so depressing to rely on luck."

He stripped off and headed toward the bathroom to take a shower while letting the TV on, giving him the impression that the condo was less empty.

"_The tormentor didn't appear in the last four days. We know that he interrogated his victims to search assassins from the testimony of the victims. Had he left the city? Or is he waiting for something? These are the questions Gotham citizens are asking themselves."_

While under his shower, with water trickling down, he still could hear the local news at TV.

"Your loyal torturer is pissed off because he is in a dead-end, this is the answer you're searching for." It sometimes diverts him to talk to the presenter. "I should stop that, if I'm caught someday, I'll not go to Belle Reve but to Arkham. I should find a healthier distraction, maybe basketball with my telekinesis 3 pointers, I'll be in NBA in a flash."

Later, he went to bed while hearing the recognizable sound of the Batmobile engine.

"Batman is out tonight, but the Tormentor is not. I hope the rematch will happen soon. Next time, I'll beat your bat ass."

**Next Morning**

**Monday**

**6:00 AM**

The weekend ended and Aiden still wasn't an early bird, but he still forced himself to get up from the bed.

This early in the morning, the world was still hazy through his eye, he drank two cups of coffee and put on his sportswear heading to Robinson Park.

During his training, he felt strange, as if someone was watching him, but after put his detection range to his maximum capacity, he found nothing. He resumed his activities but still, something felt wrong.

He practiced his routine training in the park for an hour and half before heading to the condo to take a shower and put on his school uniform.

"Just in time." He arrived at Gotham Academy just before the start of his morning class, which earned him a frown from Barbara.

"You're late."

"Hello to you too. And I'm not, there is twenty-three second left."

"You know what I mean."

"Yes, I can read your mind dear. I changed my schedule, I want to stay fit. I don't want to go to the gym after school, otherwise, our little dates at the library where you put shame on me with your computer like brain will end. Now that I think to it, it's a con, I have to change my schedule."

"You want to stay fit, you? Did you looked in the mirror lately?" With her gaze, she scanned him from head to toe.

"No don't look at me like that. I see what is hiding in your gaze, you want to tie me up to a chair in your basement. This way I'll be yours for eternity."

Her look changed and became…. Strange? Ugly? It's complicated

"Where do you get this from? I'm not some kind of psycho. You have more chance with Harley Quinn than me, idiot."

"I'd like to. She looks like a model full of joie de vivre. And as for you being a psycho, we're in Gotham, it's the reference place to find psychos."

"Sigh, I can't withstand your humor without a cup of coffee."

"When I say that you have no humor. You win in wit, but I win in humor."

"You don't win, yours is too…. special." Barbara speech took a bit of time as if she was searching her words, trying to not be hurtful.

**6:00 PM**

After school, Aiden once again headed toward the Bialyan quarter. He took the bus at the campus entrance; it took five minutes to reach his destination.

He felt it once again, the sensation he had this morning. He felt spied on, but still found nothing.

Even before the feeling a stare, Aiden felt tired, his mood was the worst. He did it during four days, and he could say that he preferred fight against all the gangs of Gotham at once over this.

Once again, he started his labor. He became known in the quarter after these four days, he received greetings, scoffing of annoyance.

He chose to go deeper in the streets. The back alley was not the best choice, while in civilian clothes, in case of conflict he would have to run like a deer. When you have the power to smash your opponents against the wall or reduce them to meat past in the blink of an eye; It becomes degrading as hell.

Two hours, he did it during two hours. He was attacked by junkies with daggers, kitchen knife, stick, baseball ball, etc. Each time, he run away like a rabbit.

Finally, he found something promising. In the beginning, then it became funny, no hilarious, Aiden could barely hold back his laughter. It started when he went in an old worn-out building.

Dozens of junkies laid on the floor, some with white powder under the nose, some still had a syringe in the arm. The place smelt of smoke and piss.

"Hey, Hey. Never mind." He kicked one of them lightly in the leg, but he didn't react at all, he could be dead it would be the same. No, he was dead. Scanning his body with his detection technique, he didn't felt a heartbeat.

"Hey, Hey." Two more were dead, and three more were in a coma.

After kicking the one who seem in better shape, compared to others. He finally got a response.

When the junkie opened his eye, he showed him the photo. "Do you know who they are?"

He seemed terrified "The camp, they want to steal my truth. The scientist wants to steal my truth!" He got up and started talking at fast speed, walking around him while holding his head with his hands.

"Who want to steal your truth?"

"The scientist, Kobra, they want to steal my truth."

"Kobra like in Kobra cult?"

"Yes, they want to know where is the truth. But only I know." He was howling while scratching his head.

"Where is the truth? You can tell me, I'm your friend."

"Only I know. Powergirl has the truth, and she shared it with Superman."

"Powergirl and Superman are involved in something nasty?" it seemed unbelievable, but his father said that there is always a hidden side. He should consider this possibility.

"Yes." He suddenly approached Aiden, but he stepped back "Powergirl hide the truth in her cleavage, it's so big, she's hiding it but she's showing it. Superman is the same. He wears underwear while flying, and why wear underwear above your clothes? To hide the truth. They stole it from me."

"Good question, but I don't want to see what is under Superman underwear, I would prefer to check Supergirl skirt instead." He barely holds his laughter back and continued his conversation with the junky.

He was stressed lately, and this conversation was the perfect occasion to relax. It continued on and ended after thirty minutes. Leaving the building, Aiden legs were wobbling, he laughed too much, far too much. He cried from laughter.

"I'll have to come back. He should become humorist."

Traversing the back alley from one to another, he was soon surrounded by coated men equipped with guns.

Normal people would be afraid, but he was overjoyed. He recognized the symbol on the coats; it was the Kobra cult. The information's of the junky were true. Internally, he was exclaiming "Maybe I should think to check Powergirl cleavage."

"Hey guys, you took your time, I felt you staring at me since morning." Lifting his hands above his head, he said nonchalantly.

"You will follow us; we have questions for you." A man said in a hoarse voice before throwing a punch in his head.

He could dodge easily, but he was a civilian and his answers are just in front of him. He would gain more by performing the act of the frightened little lamb. When he will get all his answers, he'll discreetly leave.

Receiving the punch, he feigned hurt, and they dragged him in an old van.

Inside the van, it was cramped and he was laying on the floor, tied. Dried bloodstain covered the floor and he smelt another odor, more disturbing which shown that this van wasn't only for kidnapping. Internally he was mad, he would already be on the dark side. "Fucker, once I get my information's, I'll slowly torture, and I'll enjoy it."

"Hey fuckers, can I know what you want?"

Paf. One of them punched him in the face.

"I'll rip your ball and make you eat it." His hurry heightened and he couldn't help but mutter in a breath.

"What are you saying?" Fortunately, they don't seem to hear him.

"I've said that we can talk without you punching my head. What do you want? The secret he told me? Okay, I'll tell you the secret is hidden in Powergirl cleavage. I swear."

"Still no answers. Another one. Where are we going? To a private party?"

"Yes, a party and I'll love it you maybe less." One of them spoked gleely, with sadism in his voice and excitation.

His mood hit rock bottom. In appearance. Inside he was laughing like a madman. "I'll love it, far more than you. I'll hear your sweet little screams. At the end of the day, I don't think you'll be able to live normally. You' will end at Arkham as your mind will become as crazy as the Joker, or you'll kill yourself at the second I go away."

This uncomfortable trip took less than ten minutes before the van stopped.

As they dragged him out, he could see an old warehouse at the docks of Gotham City and hear the gulls.

Once inside the warehouse, they put him inside a locked room cramped with a dozen people. All asleep, or more precisely drugged. He tried to wake them up without results.

"You're breaking my heart. I thought it would be only us." He called to them with ridicule through the small aperture at the door.

The guard at the door seems chatty, or he was in a good mood.

"Don't worry, your turn will come."

"It come to my mind. Why didn't you drugged me?"

"Because we need to interrogate you, and we want to hear your screams."

"I prefer to listen to moaning. You see what I mean."

"Don't worry we can do that too."

"Your boss is hot? I have a moral code. My experience told me, hot lady plus moaning mean heaven."

"We'll hear your moans while our drugged dogs will play with your butt." The guard opened the door and pulled him out before sitting him forcefully on a chair.

"Fuck! I wanted to have my answers first and then slip away discreetly. I'll have to interrogate them and kill them. Why did that bastard is in heat?" His thought drifted away pretty fast.

But he was brought back to reality when a woman stepped in front of him.

Her style was uncommon, at least in the building. She was short, Caucasian, and the right half of her head was bald with a black Kobra tattoo. On the other side, she had short red hair. Green eyes, blue lipsticks.

"So, you're the one who is asking questions in town? I want you to tell me why and were you get these photos."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Looking away, he responded flatly.

.Paf. He received several blows from her which send him and the chair flew away.

"We'll start over. First, I want your name, and then you'll tell me why are you in possession of photos of professor Rickmer and our scientist team." While saying that she put her hand on the floor, and the floor between him and her disintegrated, stopping some inch away from his family jewels.

"You would destroy a treasure of humanity?" His voice sounded high pitched seemingly terrified but inside it was something else "And the Oscar goes to. Me."

"Boastful, are we? I like to destroy pride the most…"

"Sorry. Yes, Shimer, I know your name from TV. I know you are threatening me but I think you should talk to them first." Aiden looked up to show her to the person who had just entered the building.

Robin and Batgirl. Him red and black. Her blue and gold.

"The bat kids. It's been a long time." Shimmer took a fighting stance and all her henchmen aimed their guns at the duo."

"I should have brought popcorn. The show will be great, but the interrogation with the police will be less fun. I hope the new identity Trent gave me is foolproof." Still lying on the floor uncomfortably, he started to worry.

The battle was interesting but one-sided.

Robin began the show in throwing two batarang to the floor. They ejected black smoke and soon the warehouse was clad in black. After that he saw shadows move through the smoke, followed by the grunt of men.

Fortunately, Aiden had his detection technique to follow all the events, otherwise he would be crying. It was the first time he saw heroes fighting against villains at less than five meters of him.

"No, wait. I already saw it once. Batman and his team fought against me. No, I'm not a villain. Am I?"

Just after that, the smoke started to dissipate and he could finally see the fight through his eyes. Batgirl and Robin against Shimmer.

Shimmer was strong and possessed an ability, but it was two against one. Their teamwork was absolutely flawless.

During the fight, holes started to appear on the floor and the walls of the warehouse. Seeing this worried him a bit, the building was pretty old, and all the holes increased the structural fragility.

But his worries soon came to an end, as Shimmer fell unconscious after a kick from Batgirl straight in her face.

"Nicely done. Too bad I couldn't record that."

"Happy to see that you didn't stressed after being kidnapped." Robin talked to him while tying Shimmer. Batgirl untied him and headed for the detention room to check all the victims.

"They were drugged, but should wake up soon." She checked the pulse of the unconscious people before informing Robin."

"The police is on the way. We can let them handle it."

Cables shot out from their wrist's bracelet and left them up in the air. They disappeared just before the arrival of the police forces.

"Police! Don't move!"

Three police cars stopped before the building and police officers stepped in, weapon to the hand.

"Hey calm down! They kidnapped me! I'm a good guy."

"Put your hands up. We'll hear your story later." Aiden left his hands up and did as they said.

They soon found the other victims, tied the bad guys and then everyone was in the way to the police precinct.

Some time later, he was in an interrogation room, in front of him sat the father of his friend.

The room was like in TV series, gray, dull, two chairs, a table, a glass. Not even a poster on the wall, absolutely no fashion sense.

"Hello, I'm commissioner Gordon, I'll lead this interrogatory. I would want to hear what happened, apparently, you were the only one awake among the victims." He gave him a can of soda before introducing himself.

"Hello, sir. Yes, I was awake, tied on a chair as Shimmer was punching face. Then, Robin and Batgirl came and beat her and her henchmen ass. I saw nothing because Robin threw some gas projectile, I only heard the sound. They left just before the arrival of your men."

"Good" he wrote something in a notebook "Do you know why you were kidnapped?".

Aiden was worried, hoping that his new identity holds out with the investigation of the GCPD.

"Like the others, I think. Wrong time, wrong place." Opening the can with a sound of metal he replied flatly to the commissioner. "I was walking in the Bialyan quarter when an old van braked beside me, then the door opened and they dragged me in."

"What did they asked you?"

"Nothing, they didn't really interrogated me. It was more that girl that took her frustration on me." He was pretty confident that none of the members of the Kobra cult that were cuffed would denounce the reason for his kidnapping. They hide the scientists who were in that camp for more than twenty years. Why would they confess to the police? "She may be a sadist. My sole relief is that I saw Batgirl kick her square in the face."

"That's all I had to ask you. You're free to go. For security, there will be a regular patrol over the domicile of all the victims, and don't hesitate to call the police if you see something strange." The commissioner gave him a handshake before guiding him out of the police station.

All the explications from the police and the interrogatories took time.

Seeing the dark sky, he eyed his phone "More than 9:00 AM, and I don't have a car. I'll have to take a cab, walking in the street of Gotham at Night while hiding my power is not the best idea."

He didn't have to wait for long, Gotham is corrupted and has insane criminality rate, but it stays one of the biggest and richest city of the United States.

Sitting in the cab, his thoughts were focusing on the name Shimmer told him while she interrogated him. "Professor Rickmer, I finally got a name."

Back in his apartment, he put the laptop on his bed and sat a sandwich in hand while searching the name of this professor.

He got a lot of results, and they were all more horrible than each other.

"Professor Rickmer, arrested for human experimentation"

"… Inhuman experiments."

"…. Mass murder."

"…. War crimes."

"…. Escaped from prison."

These news were old, most of them were newspaper archives, the last news dated back from twenty years ago.

"So that guy is working for the Kobra cult. I must find them to ask them some questions, but this time it's the Tormentor who will ask the questions, their turn to take the beating."

**10:00 AM**

**Gotham Academy**

During three days, the Tormentor made his come-back, to the joy of the media that could wrote as much they wanted.

"The Kobra Cult is good at hiding, it took me three days to find their headquarter at Gotham. I'll go tonight and obtain the location of that asshole."

"I know from my father that you were kidnapped, but can't you listen in class."

"You said it yourself Barb, I was kidnapped, I was shaken emotionally."

"Really? My father told you were lively at the police station." His gorgeous classmate told him while lifting her eyebrows with a tinge of sarcasm.

"Yes, but you know that I'm hiding my feelings behind a facade. You told it yourself." Aiden made exaggerate gestures and said in a pitiful tone.

"Yes, but I shouldn't have said it, seeing as you use it against me."

"Not so smart, miss Einstein?" A gleeful smile appeared on his lips, it made him please to use her arguments against her.

"How many nicknames did you gave me since we know each other."

"I don't know, maybe. No. Eh. A lot."

"I thought so too. Maybe you should stop. Back to the subject. Why were you kidnapped? Can't you be more careful when you're alone in the streets of Gotham."

"I wanted to ask them if they had the drugs you're taking to boost your brain. Woefully, they didn't had it, but they told me that Lex Luthor should have it with his big brain."

"Can't you be serious a second." Exasperation was showing on her face and tone.

"Error 404. I wasn't programmed for this action." He told her in a robotic tone.

"Why did they rescued you from the Kobra Cult? if they did not, I would have had peace."

**9:00 PM**

"Here they are my cute little snakes." Aiden finally found their bases after three days of research. "Twelve and they don't seem to have superpowers. Easy." He was eying them from the roof of a building.

Pulling up his hood and tying the cloth around his mouth, he was ready to go.

This time he didn't sneaked around or tried to be stealthy. He entered with a bang. Literally. With a telekinetic push, the door and most of the brick wall was sent flying at high speed.

Booom.

"Twelve opponent, one move. I'm improving." All the men from the Kobra cult were lying on the floor while groaning in pain. "This one is conscious" He lift up one man from the floor with his telekinesis " I want to know where is Professor Rickmer."

The man struggled uselessly while groaning. "I don't know who you're talking about."

He lifted another one, he floated in front of his partner.

"Crack" " Aahh" At once bone-crushing sounds were heard, his four limbs were broken in an odd angle.

"If you don't talk, I'll do the same thing to you. Did you remember something?"

"I swear I don't know. All of us are new and unimportant in the cult. We are at the lowest level."

"Where are those with my information?"

"I don't know. In the cult, no one knows about what did the others. Only the higher up can know this. Some of them will meet a thief in Gotham."

"When and where? "He increased the pressure around the neck of his victim.

" Huh. Now. On the docks"

"If you lie to me, I'll come back and made of your life a nightmare."

Flying up into the sky, he made his way to the docks at his fastest speed. During his flight, he saw a lot of police car around Wayne Tech seems like something happened over here. It took him less than thirty seconds to arrive to the docks where here he heard loud sounds of fights.

Turning his head, he saw the wall of one of the buildings being demolished as some sort of human or monster passing through it. With the low lighting of the docks, he took him to recognize Mammoth from the Kobra Cult. After his bad encounter with them, he memorized every important member.

Sounds of guns echoed inside the building, through the big aperture created by Mammoth, he saw Batman fighting Kobra henchmen's, Shimmer and A smoking hot woman clad in a black tight suit.

"Shimmer? She's already out? Did they build their jail in cheese?" The idea to fight alongside Batman would have pleased him beyond belief in the past. But now, it cooled him down.

He made his way to fight where Batman just kicked Shimmer in the Stomach just before being sent flying by the humongous Mammoth.

"Hey, Batman you seem in bad posture. If I give you a hand, you'll let me interrogate them?"

Looming over Batman he asked him while lending his hand to help him get up.

"Okay, but I want to be there and no torture." Batman responds to him while eying his opponents. They seem to divide the fight against this new foe.

"At least a bit. Otherwise, they won't spill the beans." He protested, but the only thing he got from Batman was a dark stare."… Ok. I take the hot chicks. You take the Monster. As for Shimmer." In a thought he sends her crash against a metal girder at high speed. Taken aback, she had no time to react, and it knocked her unconscious.

He finally got his vengeance against her, the sole negative point is that she didn't know why.

"Sure, but be wary of you "hot chick", she is Nocturna, a vampire, immortal, invulnerable, possess super strength, able to fly, hypnotize and regenerate herself."

"Gorgeous and deadly. Is it normal that I like her more and more?" He scans her up and down while stopping at her shapely curves.

"Focus on your fight, or you will not know how you'll die."

"I know you don't have superpowers, but you could buy a sense of humor." He was a fan of Batman since his first apparition, but he has to admit that he doesn't know how to relax. He should train with Flash for that. "Pretty lady, a dance?"

A smirk came to her face. "Why not? You seem pleasing to the eyes."

She flew up before speeding toward him and punching him in the stomach, but before that he sidestepped and send a knee kick reinforced with his armored telekinesis in her rib.

"It's not a way to treat a woman, it tickles."

"Batman said that you were invulnerable, so I'll have to beat you strongly if I want you to feel it."

"Naughty boy. I'll make you die like my third husband."

"And I'll try my full powers against you. Seeing how you are invulnerable and has regenerative abilities. I should say you are the perfect punching ball."

"I changed my mind. You'll die like my second husband." Her tone darkened, it wasn't playful anymore.

"It means we won't have a passionate night? You're breaking my heart. I'll have to gain small benefits, maybe tearing your suit patch by patch during the fight."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4-Star City**

* * *

On the other side, Batman was fighting that humongous mass of muscle. He was dominating the fight, dodging Mammoth blows, before sending a counter to the chin. He didn't knock out Mammoth, his head moved under the force of the blow, the only visible effect was that Mammoth seemed angry.

He charged blindly at Batman sending a devastating punch downward the Dark Knight, which dodged with a jump above Mammoth head, while by passing his enemy from above he sends two black device which glue to Mammoth back before exploding sending him flying forward.

In normal times, Aiden gaze would be glued to Batman fight as a fan of superhero, but now, he didn't let out Nocturna out of his sight even for a second. Batman warned him of her abilities, but there was something more, as if Aiden primal instinct was telling him that she was extremely dangerous and that he couldn't underestimate his foe.

A sly grin appeared on his face, he scanned this area and felt absolutely no one except them, he was ready to unleash his full power. He launched the strongest telekinetic push he produced ever at Nocturna sending her flying through the wall of the building, and then the wall of the neighboring warehouse, and another, and another, before finally stopping in the fourth warehouse, she was thrown on a pile of wet and stinky fishing net.

Getting up, she wiped off her face and glare at him with an expression full of fury "After what I'll do to you, you will beg Satan himself to take you in hell to shorten your sufferings."

"Nothing? Unharmed?" it stunned him, her invulnerability was tough "I like it more and more." His expression became almost sadistic, he flew at top speed through the holes she made in the buildings. Raising his fist, he directed it toward her abdomen, but Nocturna deviated it using her right hand to push his wrist aside, followed by a knee kick in the stomach.

This time, it was him who passed through the wall. His armor of telekinesis around him protected him from the blow, he felt absolutely nothing.

"Smartass, you found a way to protect yourself. Let's see how much time you can hold your defenses up."

Nocturna jumped toward him and sent a fury of blow. A fist toward his nose, he evaded it turning his head aside, she sent another knee kick, he blocked it with his knee, their entanglement continued like that for a moment.

Aiden was totally exalted, the intensity of the fight, the adrenaline flowing through his veins, the danger of death looming over his head like a Damocles sword. All these factors made him realize he may be a battle junkie, but he didn't knew before. Since he got his powers after the death of his parents, he never fought at full power, even against Batman and his sidekicks. All along he was keeping his power in check to avoid sending a powerful which could cripple them or even worse reduce them at the state of dead meat. This was the first time he could go full power against his enemies without fearing the consequences.

They were battling above the ground, Aiden suddenly let himself fall, Nocturna followed suit with her right leg raised to strike him to the head, but Aiden touched the floor first and boosted his legs with his telekinesis as an armor the most he can and sent a high kick in her stomach.

When his foot touched, he heard crushing bones sound, he became used to it, after all these nights in Gotham.

She was propelled through the roof and climbed high around twenty meters above the ground before starting to fall toward the ground. To anyone else it would have been deadly but to her it means nothing.

"I hope your regeneration is fast enough, I don't want to wait. I never had that much fun in my life" In a flash, he was floating in front of her. "Maybe we should test what is the maximal height free fall you can resist before turning into a puddle of blood."

"I've eaten not long ago. We can continue our little game all night, but it starts to annoy me. I'll put an end to this." Her ribs seem to have healed, she didn't seem hindered by it.

"No, I have a lot of tricks to try on you. Once I have tested them all, there we could pass the night just the two of us." Seeing her in top form so soon, he was overexcited. The fight could resume.

"Little shi.." He sent her flying toward the ground with a telekinetic push. Lifting her head up, she saw him taking out something out of his pocket. It was a wallet full of coins, ready to burst.

"This one, I didn't invent it, I've seen it on tv, but the idea is still good" All the coins floated up above him before flying toward her at incredible speed.

Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom

Around fifty coins landed on the ground at high speed, each had a destructive power comparable to an impact of mortar. The docks area now looked like a bombardment took place, and the impact created a big wave which send several boats against the wharf adding to the destruction. The grounds were full of holes.

"It was better on TV, they didn't produce a sonic boom. Should I try again with more speed?" Looking at it, he was saddened, it wasn't strong enough, it should barely have scratched her.

"Little shit do you know who I am? I am Nocturna, not a fucking guinea pig! Psycho!" It infuriated her, that bastard dared to use her as an experimental bet.

"Let's try again, I'm sure I can make them reach at least Mach 1. Out of ammo" Checking his wallet, it was empty, it didn't bother him he just emptied several parking meters on the way here. "Oh, I have an idea." Seeing his smile, Nocturna knew she wouldn't like what will follow.

Rumble

The warehouse Nocturna passed through at the beginning of the fight started to move whole, not only that the ships, the wharfs, publics lightnings, all the area started to move slightly before floating up in the air.

The bricks of the warehouse separated one after another, rotate and under the pressure of telekinesis cut in a pointed shape, a total of several thousands of bricks. Metallic parts from the boats, lighting and all that was in the area were broken to in a sharp angle, several hundred metal shards of 3,93 inch were created.

"This time, I want a sonic boom!" He howled in the sky and put all his telekinetic power into the projectiles. He was like a child with his favorite toy. The only downside was that he had to keep a thin telekinetic film around the brick's spikes, else they would disintegrate before reaching Mach1.

BOOM

RUMBLE

He was pushed backward by a strong gust of wind, in fact it was the sonic boom which produced it. The ground trembled as if there was an earthquake, public lightings were flashing off and on as in a horror movie.

The ground was littered of holes, at some place the ground collapse and fall into the bay of Gotham all the building around collapsed. This scene could only be found in a war zone after several hours of bombardment.

Nocturna was here, she took several projectiles directly, it didn't kill her, but she suffered grievous injuries, she could heal but she needs to consume blood and with the amount of injuries she suffered during this fight, her snack she eaten previously wasn't enough.

"Hey, get up. I want to resume our fight. Hey, respond to me."

"She won't get up soon. You beat her up for some time, until her next meal." Batman appeared behind him. Hearing his voice, he sounds really upset.

Turning his head, Aiden saw the look in his eyes "What happened, where did I messed up?"

"Where? You have the guts to ask where! Look around you, you destroyed the docks it looks like a war zone and you beat up your foe more than necessary."

"I had no choice, with all her powers." Batman wasn't wrong, he went with the flow. This fight was so fulfilling for him, he didn't restrict his power and toyed with Nocturna like a cat play with a mouse.

"Lame excuse, you had the upper hand, obviously. You fight like a child with a toy and you destroyed for several million dollars only in infrastructure. It will require several months to rebuild the docks."

Crossing his arms, Batman started his preaching. It reminds Aiden of his parents, and it really angered him.

"Shut up, you're a normal human, if I wasn't here, she would have bitten your neck and take control of you then of your sidekick and loved one. You should be grateful, not preaching me. Furthermore, I checked the area there were no one. "

With that said, he flew toward the warehouse were Batman tied up Cobra cults minions, took hold of them with is telekinesis and flew toward one of the worst places of Gotham.

Batman watch him leave from the docks with a sigh. "Dick is better than me to manage these situations."

Some time later, in the sewer of Gotham.

Aiden finally got a name of someone present on this photo, but it took time to make them spill the beans. Their devotion to the cult was impressive, usually he just had to break some bones to obtain what he wants, but this time he took him three hours and the methods used were bloodier.

Seeing that breaking bones didn't work, he starts to cut them until the goons were covered in their own blood from head to toe under the bleeding, one of them fell unconscious because of blood loss. This lack of result pushed him to the edge, after all he wasn't exactly a skill interrogator, so he used the technique he created, pressing the center of fear in the brain of the victims. Aiden didn't use it previously because this method is only theoretical, he never tested it and he didn't know what degree of force he needs to apply.

He started extremely low, but the results were still incredible or terrifying. The victim started to scream, panic, and finally pissed himself before falling unconscious.

"Even lower. Shit, it needs even more control than expected". Twenty minutes later he finally got what he wanted, and the answers he got surprised him.

"Count Vertigo. I know him he was part of a group that attacked a city with giant plants and he lost his diplomatic immunity trying to kill a child some years ago. He is also known for the eponymous drug he created." After thinking to it he looked once again at the crying goon "What was he doing in these camps?"

No response.

"Shit, I think he fell into a coma." He lifts all of them up and left them at the entrance of Gotham General Hospital.

Watching the nurses and doctors taking care of them from a roof, he knew that Batman will soon find him either to preach him or arrest him, and with the powers he showed tonight he may call some of his super friends.

Back home, he looked for Vertigo on the Internet.

"He was arrested most of the time in Star City, had some grudges with Green Arrow, and escaped from prison three years ago. Sigh, what do the guards do in prison, playing card all day?"

"My best lead is Star City, and I will avoid Batman for a few days, it will give him time cool of his head." He bought a train ticket for the next day in the morning, the travel would take a bit more than an hour.

* * *

Next morning, he boarded the train at 6:00 AM, he bought a magazine about the justice league, the history of superheroes and their greatest battle. If Batman really brought his friends to fight him, he should learn the latest news on them.

"I didn't knew that! Aqualad now hold the mantle of Aquaman, but it's understandable, the previous Aquaman had also the mantle of king of Atlantis, now he can finally give all his attention to his peoples.

Aiden knows almost everything that is made public about superheroes and their nemesis. Aquaman is one of the most interesting heroes, hero and king, but due to his dual ascendancy human and Atlantean, he was contested at the beginning of his reign. They were also rumors stating that he fought against several traditions dear to the Atlantean traditionalist. That change is surely for the best.

The train was much crowded, after two stops, he finally arrived in Star City, home of Green Arrow.

Aiden was in a hurry to find Vertigo, who know how much time he has left before Batman who is hailed as the greatest detective in the world find his identity. He left for Star City in a hurry, he'll have to answer the questions of this Sherlock girl when he will be back in Gotham.

Out of the train station, he looked at the skyscrapers, Star City a prosperous city, it looks like Gotham without the bleak and rotten side.

(I can't really ask someone where is the most dangerous place of Star City or where are the headquarters of the local mafia. If Star City is like every other city in the world, it shouldn't take much time to find an ill-reputed bar or something.)

In fact, while walking on the streets, he heard people complaining about the glades and soon found out the direction. Once in the Glades, he heard people complain about "Brick" whoever he was and learnt he own a nightclub.

From the other side of the street, he was observing the nightclub, it was pretty evident it was a base of criminals, thugs coming in and out, guns in hand. In the backstreet he saw peoples with what seemed like strange armors with a cannon on the torso and strange gloves in a ball shape.

After gearing up in a back alley, he walked in the middle of the street, bystanders were looking at him curiously, he heard children's asking their parents if he was a hero.

"Stop. Who are you? This is Brick territory here."

The two guards at the door wanted to stop him, but he sent them fly to the other side of the street with a thought. Entering the nightclub, he saw a dozen people, all armed and detected another dozen on the other side of the club.

"I'm searching for Brick. Where is Brick? "

They all took out their guns out of their holsters

(Not that shit again) A bit annoyed by their lack of originality, he knocked their guns out of their hands, and then hold all of them by the throat and lift them in the air. Listening to the choking sound, he wondered aloud.

"Why didn't id did it before? Everyone with a right mind and my power would choke peoples like Darth Vader. I'm too preoccupied with that shit. I should really take time to think."

While he was lost in thought, he didn't remark that they would soon lose consciousness "Tch, can't hold a second. Can't even enjoy it properly." He let them fall to the ground, and free of the strangling they howled their companions for help.

"Help!" "Guys, help us kill that fucker!"

A dozen men entered the hall, equipped with strange equipment, cannons on the chest, and round gloves, all shining red. Another man entered, he was strange, tall, huge, orange and wearing a suit.

"Clayface wearing a suit? Wait that's a brick face, I know you're Brick because of your face. Not really imaginative." The stranger was looking like a monster who wanted to be elegant.

His precognition kicked in and he knew that Brick would order his goons to shoot him and that these strange weapons would send red disk to restrict and electrocute him.

"Shoot that idiot, but don't kill him. I want to know who sent him here."

Even before the red discs could reach him, he sent them back to their owners, who howled in pained under the electric discharges.

"Precognition is so useful, I should stop underestimating my foes. One day, something bad will happen." Brick jumped at him, his left fist raised to hit him with a devastating blow straight in the face, but Aiden stepped left and avoided the blow "You seem tough, maybe I can test my hand to hand techniques against you."

Brick was slow, in combat, he relied on pure strength and his durability to win. Against someone like Aiden that could foresee the attacks of his opponent and can become a heavy hitter, Brick would be in a pinch in no time.

A ferocious grin was on his face as he ducked to under Brick punch, stepping forward, he hit Brick with a powerful uppercut that lifted him from the floor and sent him flying three meters away, crashing on the bar who caved in under the weight of Brick.

"You don't know the basics `fly like a butterfly sting like a bee." he said with a grin raising his arms in a defensive stance like a boxer.

Smashing the bar even further, Brick got up obviously pissed off "You got luck, I underestimated you kid. This time I send you straight to the grave."

Picking up the wreaked bar, he throws it to Aiden at full force but the results weren't formidable. "I see, you didn't get a PhD. I'll give you a free lesson." As he said that, the bar sped up toward Brick, who stood motionless at it collided with him.

"Now that we know each other, where is Vertigo? You know an asshole, drug dealer, and who tried to murder a girl some years ago." Pouncing at Brick he sends him two jabs in the stomach, followed by a knee kicks… in the balls.

Brick collapsed with bubbles to the lips, holding the remnants of his balls and soon started to cry like a baby.

"You know, I understand your suffering. I admit it was foul play, but it was the fastest way. Now can you tell me where is Vertigo? Or would I have to do it again?"

"Stop! Vertigo territory is all the northernmost part of the town, you'll only find his henchman's in the streets, I don't know where is their headquarters, but he like luxury, you should check to the wealthy hotels or the villas."

"Fuck! Why not even once someone can give me a straight answer? Am I cursed? I don't like treasure hunting. If God exist and I meet him someday, I'll tell him what I think of all these bullshits." He was angered by Brick answer but he saw some bottles still intact on the floor "I'll take a beer to calm down, put it on my tab."

He sat at a table to the side and drank his beer as Brick finally got up with wobbling legs. "You know, maybe you should check it at the hospital. I was a bit forceful."

Brick gaze on him was terribly dark, if he was Superman, Aiden would have laser holes in his body.

"Want something?"

Swallowing his anger, he responded him "No. No problem."

"What kind of guy is Vertigo? Could I hope to talk to him without having to beating up his ass first?" Emptying his beer, he got up and walked toward the door.

"An arrogant prick with a stick deep in the ass. I don't know him particularly well."

Opening the door, he left with a word of thanks: "A pleasure working with you".

Brick watch him leave while thanking the heavens that this devil finally got out of his sight.

Out of the nightclub, Aiden was pondering what to do from now on. Until a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"There are several ways to find someone you know? You don't have to torture them all." The voice of a man echoed behind him.

Two people jumped from the roof of the nightclub and landed behind him. He didn't react because he knew who they were. A man wearing green, with a bow and a quiver full of arrows on his back, a green hood, a blond goatee and mustache. The other person stood alongside him, was a blond woman wearing a black leather jacket over a blue shirt curving a plentiful bust, on her lower body was a leather miniskirt and fishnet stockings, her boots were black, solid, it looked like rangers boots used in the army.

"Green Arrow and Black Canary. I'm fan since your debuts." Green Arrow raised his brows seemingly surprised and amused.

"So, what did Batman little troublemaker is doing in Star City?" This time it was Black canary who talked.

"He talked about me? I was almost certain he was too busy training his deadpan expression and preaching peoples."

He saw Green Arrow smile as he said "Yeah, he is pretty stubborn, paranoid, an..." He couldn't continue because Black Canary gave him a little nudge. Faking a cough, he resumed, "but he wants to help you. We want to help you."

"I don't need help; I know how it will end. I know it since the very beginning and I'm ready for it. There is surely a cell with my name already on it at Belle Reve."

"You're not forced to do this. We could help you to obtain justice."

"I don't want justice. I want vengeance. Do you really think I would to that if I could obtain justice? Whoever they are, they are powerful and influential." His voice was filled with bitterness. Here he was, talking with his heroes, they asked him to become one, but he couldn't. He was on the other side, a villain. His lifelong dream was shattered, he would never become a hero.

"You don't have to do this. I killed too, as a last resort, but I did it. The world doesn't see me as a monster either, because of the way I act, I'm saving people. If you continue the way you are, you will really become a villain in the hearts of people, and we will have to stop you. Let us help you, change the way you act. Show to the world you can be a hero. Whoever they are, whatever their power is, the Justice League will help you obtain justice."

Green Arrow delivered him a speech that shook his resolve, but maybe it was out of resign or self-hatred for what he already did, he refused. Pushing himself toward what he always despised.

"No. I refuse. I have to do it alone. It's too late, I've taken this road, and I won't back down." Turning his back toward them, he took off the ground and flew without destination. He wanted to empty his mind to steel his resolve.

"You let him go?" Black Canary asked her other half.

"You didn't stop him either Dinah, and you saw his reaction. He hesitated and his voice shivered. He may come back to us. Give him some time."

"Maybe we should ask someone from the team to talk to him. He may be more open toward someone around his age. I'll talk about it to M'gann later. Now if I remember correctly, we were on our way to the restaurant. I hope we didn't change our schedule?" She said to her companion on a tone of blame.

"Which restaurant on this Earth would be good enough for you, milady?" Exaggerating his Gesture, he put a knee to the ground and took her hand in his before kissing it.

"Stop playing around and drive to a restaurant. I'm starving."

"Yes, my queen." With a sigh, he put on his motorcycle helmet.

Aiden was eating a burger from the 'Big Belly Burger' on the rooftop of the Skyscraper owned by Queen Industries. He was watching the waves hitting the coast from up there, endlessly it hit the rocks again and again.

He could see Star City as a whole, all these skyscrapers where the lights reflected on the glass. It was beautiful. Except for the sound of klaxons that were heard from the road below.

At some time, he changed his line of sight, he was watching the streets, he didn't want to think about it but it came back without stop "You can be a hero". Green Arrow words were still in his head, maybe because he dreamt of it since his childhood, and now he could be one but his ultimate goal is against it.

He was watching the streets, unconsciously searching an occasion to help someone. Only idiots would commit a crime in the streets in the middle of the day.

"I have to get this out of my head, I can't stop here. Whoever they are, there are linked either to the police or the government and even the League can't fight the government. But why would someone affiliated with the government kill my parents? These camps were an experiment like a devil in the box from the cold war? Too dark and inhumane to let the public learn? No, or the Boss of the bar wouldn't be alive anymore. Fuck, I think I'm becoming crazy like those guys imagining conspiracy theory."

He drank his soda while trying to calm his thought.

Sigh "I hope all this will take an end soon, I think I'll become crazy."

Throwing his trashed from the top of the skyscraper, it goes straight to public trash bin below, on the street. "Three pointers, I'll become the ace in the basketball team at Belle Reve."

"I don't want to do all that shit again, break some bones, go somewhere else, do it once again, go elsewhere, and do it once again. I hate that routine."

Heading to the northernmost part of the town, he found dealers in the street pretty easily. Aiden choose to follow them from the sky, and he tested another theoretical application of his telekinesis. Using his telekinesis, he used it to bend lights and sound around him. Theoretically speaking, it was perfect, but in reality, it was horribly taxing; He tried this ability for around 15 seconds and he was exhausted, had a horrible headache, and was covered in sweat.

"I shouldn't have tried it before fighting a super-villain. I must learn some self-restraint." Bending lights and sound was more complicated that anything he did before, it was immaterial and required an extreme concentration. It was the first time that his ability worned him out that much.

Nonetheless, he was happy, his theory was right, and if become used to it, he may improve his invisibility and lessen the burden on his mind while using it.

To save up his mental power and calm his headache, he trailed the drug dealer on foot after that. Two hours later, the dealer put his bag on his shoulder and headed toward his car. Fortunately, after resting two hours his headache had ceased, the problem was that he stinks because of his clothes covered in sweat. He followed him high in the sky to an abandoned factory from Queen Industries.

He landed in front of the entrance where the guards seemed to be waiting for him. Armed with M-16 they opened the door and led him in the old factory.

"This way, the Count is waiting for you in his office."

Inside, Guards stood on the platform upstairs and blocked all the entrance. In the center of the factory, several dozens of peoples were putting green and violet pills inside transparent bags after weighing them.

The guards led him upstairs, inside Vertigo office. What he saw surprised him, Brick told him that Vertigo loved luxury, but this office was shabby, no decorations, the ceiling was leaking, and the windows were dirty and covered in bird feces.

"Hello Count. I thought you loved luxury, seems like I can't believe in rumors."

"I never come here, I'm here today because I heard the "Gotham Tormentor" was looking for me. I don't want to fight if I can avoid it and your methods seem more brutal than those of the League. I heard what happened to Nocturna. So here I am, please make it fast. I don't want to stay in this trash bin any longer." The count tone was arrogant, at least this rumor was right. He was green, literally, green suit, green cape, green tie. His favorite color wasn't hard to guess.

(I guess I know why he has grudges with Green Arrow. He stole his color.)

"Finally, someone who can understand and whom I can discuss with. I want you to tell me everything you know about that." Taking the photos out of his pocket he put it on the old desk.

Nearing the desk, the Count an eyebrow seeing the photos and started to talk "These camps were situated in Bialya, it happened twenty years ago…."

"Yeah, I already know that, I want to know who are the peoples on these photos, and what are they doing here, and maybe if you know if prisoners of these camps succeeded to escape."

A scowl appeared on the visage of the Count, seems like he doesn't like to be interrupted. "I prefer to avoid fighting. It don't mean I can't fight. Twenty years ago, before Queen Bee rise to power, her predecessor was a marionette at the hands of several crime syndicates, who offered the Bialyan's citizens as a currency in exchange of money, military powers from foreign groups to invade the neighboring countries.

Several groups take the occasion, Cobra Cult, Church of Blood, some underground companies, and some people came individually and later became famous, such as Luthor." The count was telling him the story on a flat tone while watching the photos.

"What type of experiment where they doing?"

"I don't know everything; these camps were located all over Bialya. On my side, I was trying to create a drug that later became the vertigo. The church of blood attempted to summon demons or something like that, I don't care about magic. Some companies were trying to create super soldiers, others experimented on mind control, other were trying to develop or duplicate superpowers, now known as meta-gene. Almost everything you can think of.

To answer your question from earlier, no one escaped. Even when these camps were closed and the royal family restored their authority, no one escaped. No one wanted to leave the results of their research behind, they killed them all. They burned them to leave no trace. On my side, I didn't bother with this, drugs dissipate fast inside the body." A smirk on his face, seemingly proud of himself.

"I know that people escaped, these photos are the proof." Aiden's tone became heavier even if he wanted to be impassible, it hurt him, it was personal.

Raising a brow maybe of anger, or of interest of this change, Vertigo resumed. "Once. Something happened in the early years of these camps, the supervisor of the camp #7, a Bialyan general and a group of scientists from the Kobra Cult evade with five or six prisoners. I don't know why, maybe they felt pity toward them, maybe they wanted to keep their experiments to themselves or they may have been paid to steal the research. Around ten people succeed to evade, everyone thought they would soon be dead, Kobra Cult are not easy with traitors."

"What happened?"

"The US government, or someone who has access to their resources saved them. The group that the Kobra Cult sent to catch them was killed by a group of elite soldiers and we saw a group of military helicopters in the sky that day. I told you everything. Now, I hope I won't see you again, and that you don't meddle in my business." Once again scowling, he put an end to the conversation.

"You have my word. Thanks, by the way." Aiden turned around was led outside by the guards.

He changed clothes in an old and empty warehouse. Before stepping out as Aiden Sharp once more.

He made his way silently toward the train station as rain started to fall from the sky. The streets were crowded with peoples. The rain and the wind made him shiver. He didn't anticipate the rain, and he can't stop the rain from reaching in front of all these bystanders. Even if Meta-Genes become more common after the Reach sudden arrival, it still rare.

He was thinking, he didn't know when he arrived, raising his head he saw was already at the train station. Buying a ticket to Gotham, he was hesitating.

(My invisible foe is really powerful. He manipulates the NYPD and now the army. Who is that bastard and why did he kill my parents if he saved them before? Now, conspiracy theories don't seem stupid anymore. I should accept Green Arrow offer, I won't be able to find him alone, he is hidden too deep in the system.)

In a metallic squeal, the train stopped in front of him and the other passengers. He hurried before the others to take a seat; it was crowded, and he didn't want to stay standing during the trip.

After one hour of travel, someone called him by phone.

'Vvvv'. His phone was vibrating in his trouser pocket.

Taking out his phone, he saw the caller's name, Barbara.

(Can't she wait tomorrow to interrogate me? Even without knowing her, it's easy to guess she come from a family of cops.)

"Hi Barbara. How are you?"

"You ditched school." Her tone was reproachful, even angered.

"Yes, Mom." Responding in his usual playful tone, he tried to calm her down, but failed as her tone became solemn.

"We have to talk. Tomorrow at the coffee shop opposite the library." She was solemn, direct, and unusually cold.

"Okay. See you tomorrow." (It seems I really pissed her off. Why did I become friend with an honor student?)

Aiden didn't knew. Batman hailed as the greatest detective in the world discovered his identity only a bit more than a week after their encounter. With the information's Green Arrow gave him after listening discreetly to his conversation with the Count Vertigo, his researches about the Tormentor and what he found about the Dimitrov's. He pieced these together, and it became clear.

Aiden wasn't careful enough, believing that the only direct link to him was the false identity his parents bought to the Dimitrov's. This is the reason why he destroyed the computer and took the hard drive, but he should have guessed a criminal family like the Dimitrov have a backup somewhere. Batman did and after putting all the data in an algorithm, he found only one result. Two people bought identities from the Dimitrov and appeared in the obituary column at the dates the Tormentor was searching for.

The only strange thing was that there was no mention of murder, apparently it was a car crash that lead to their death, that's why he didn't found them while searching for a murder. After that he found their son, Arthur dead from suicide some time later, after a facial recognition of Arthur face with all of Gotham cameras, he found Aiden Sharp, Barbara's friend.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 – Death of a legend**

* * *

**Barbara Gordon/Batgirl POV**

**The Next Day**

**Batcave**

He always had been strange, ever since their first encounter in the library, but only strange as everyone else, he had some secrets he didn't wanted the others to know about. Except that, he was someone normal, quite smart and with a doubtful sense of humor.

Yesterday, Bruce investigations finally paid off, they finally discovered the identity of 'Gotham Tormentor', and it was shocking.

"Barbara, are you listening to me?" Bruce somber voice called her out of her thoughts.

"Yes, did you find a lead as to who killed his parents? It could help a lot when I talk to him."

"No, I still don't know who were his parents before their change of identity. His father opened a clinic and his mother worked as an assistant. So, they learnt medicine, I'll launch a facial identification with all the medicine school of the country. It should take some time but it's all I have.

"I hope it will work. I have to go, hope that our conversation doesn't turn bad." Taking her bag, she left for the school ground. She remembers when Starfire came on Earth, Batman saw her as a potential threat putting her on his list of people to keep an eye on. Was it not for Nightwing involvement to resolve the situation, it could have become worse.

Hoping that this time could play out just as well, else with Aiden power, the Justice League will need to intervene, and she didn't want it.

With the sound of the elevator taking off, Bruce resumes his work, searching for Aiden or Arthur's parents' origin.

It was tiresome, he didn't become rusty, but he was used to Tim flawless abilities in term of investigation. He still remembers when he came to find him, he had discovered his and Nightwing true identities. He saw that boy potential, a true diamond in the rough.

Tim became busy with the missions of the team, and now he had to take care of his relation with Cassie Sandsmark alias Wonder Girl. It was quite reassuring to see that his protégés were different from him in term of emotional relationships. All the relations he had were rather ambiguous.

His investigation bore no results, and he had to take care of his duty as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. Lucius is great at his job, but sometimes he has to make act of presence to reassure the shareholders.

Several hours later, he came back from Wayne Enterprises, he saw his algorithm of facial recognition show his results, a big red square `No Match'. Sitting down on his seat, he tried something else and found something interesting about the clinic created by Aiden parents.

Meanwhile. In the bus, she looked outside the window, the car glasses were frosty and peoples wore warm clothing, clearly winter has arrived. Today was the first cold snap, surely not the last. Mister Freeze and all the Icicle family may enjoy the weather.

At school, Barbara waited in the chemistry class but he never came. As the teacher came in, no one sat beside her. (He ditches school again. Did he know his secret is exposed? Did he know who I am? Or is he doing something else?)

Even if his antics were annoying, she starts to miss it. Perplexed by Aiden miss, she took her phone out of her pocket during the break and hacked the camera network of Gotham City. She found one camera located in his neighborhood which showed his apartment, she saw Aiden through the window in the kitchen with his computer scrolling with a bored, even desperate look.

(At least, he didn't flee or isn't breaking the law.) Putting the phone back in her pocket, she headed toward the history class. Usually, school was rather interesting, even if to her, it wasn't a challenge and was a tad boring. Today, with her conversation with Aiden planned later on, she was anxious and everything seems slow. Maybe she could add this fact to Einstein's theory.

Finally, the end of the classes came, she took the bus and stopped at the library. As she stepped off the bus, snow started to fall from the sky pretty. Covered in snow, that surely the sole times that Gotham looked brighter, as bright as Gotham can be. To her, who lived in Gotham since birth, winter was the best season of the year, white cover the dark streets and the city become almost cheerful, even if it is only in appearance.

Aiden was waiting by the entrance of the coffee shop in a dark warm coat and a blue jean. Crossing the road, she headed toward him.

"Hi, Barbara. How are you? Classes were interesting?" He seems quite jovial, different from the dark expression she saw on the monitoring cameras.

"Hello, I'm fine. Let's go in. I don't want to talk in the middle of the streets with these freezing temperatures." Truth be told, she wanted to stay out there, enjoying the snow like a child but she cannot avoid to have this conversation with him.

Passing the door, a little bell hanged above the door. Hearing the bell sound, the salesman greeted them before asking for their order.

"May I take your order?" The salesman, a slim woman in her mid-thirty wearing the coffee shop uniform asked them.

"A Café au lait without sugar and…" Barbara started to order before turning toward Aiden.

"A mochaccino, please."

Inside, Christmas decorations were displayed, a Santa Claus, a village and a mini size Christmas synthetic tree illuminating the counter and several light garlands arranged all around the shop.

They found a table by a window and sat down after taking off their coats. Several male gazes were directed toward Barbara, but she was used to it. Usually, all those who didn't backed off after being asked politely to suffered a beating.

He looked rather relax, her anxiousness seemed unnecessary. She planned the content of this conversation since yesterday, when Bruce told him his discovery.

"So why did you call me here? You were strange on the phone. First time asking for a date?" He started his antics once again with his joking tone.

"You ditched school again." Her voice was stern, even if she tried to appear calm in confronting her friend.

He passed his day searching on his computer, for someone active twenty years ago either in the police or the army, scanning for the highest graded. He knew it was pointless, but he did it, to put aside his thought that told him he will have to interrogate high graded member of the army and the police if he wanted answers. After this, all the League will have him on their radars.

"Yeah, I had some personal matters to settle, but don't worry I'll come back to school tomorrow. The director will surely give me an earful. It's Gotham maybe I should try corruption."

"I want to talk seriously, stop joking please." Taking a slight pause, she resumed her words. "I know who you are Arthur, I know what you're doing at night."

His expression fell, clearly not used to maintain the appearances. He said nothing for several seconds before asking her a question: "How did you discover it? Your father knows?"

Barbara wanted to pursue their conversation, but a waiter came with their coffees on a tray.

"A café au lait without sugar and a mochaccino." Putting down the cups and the bill, the waiter head back to the counter. Watching him leave, she resumed their conversation.

"No one know. You said it yourself several times. I'm a genius, and one of my hobbies is to hack my father computer to investigate the cases of the GCPD. It took me time to discover who the other you were, but I found you Arthur Reed." That story was her cover, she couldn't tell him she was Batgirl, you could think that her intellect could lead to Batgirl easily, but it's in fact a marvelous cover.

"What is your plan? Handing me over to your father, handcuffed and ready to confess? If you made your research about me, you know I won't surrender without a fight." Keeping his tone low was difficult, it agitated him. Batman didn't discover him, the GCPD neither, it was the only friend he had in town that found the truth.

"No, I want you to stop. You helped Gotham when you put the secrets of the Dimitrov on the Internet, you could do it again and become a hero." Her tone was calm as she said that before sipping her coffee.

"Green Arrow told me exactly the same thing, and my answer was no. What make you believe I would accept your offer?" Sipping his mochaccino, he raised an eyebrow "Delicious, I'll come back, if I'm not behind bars by tomorrow morning."

"I can offer to work with you, with my hacking skills we'll be able to find who did this to your family. In exchange, you won't kill your target. We will hand him over to the police and get proper justice." Barbara was frank, she was ready to help him get justice. She created this plan with Bruce to bring the `Tormentor' to their side. It wasn't devoid of flaws. Whoever was the murderer, he was influential in the political and military circle. The League don't want to take on the politicians now, Luthor was annoying enough by himself in that domain.

"Huh, it's not to denigrate your skills Barb', but the difference between hacking your father computer and the database of the pentagon is quite huge. Furthermore, I don't want to implicate you in all that shit. I'll settle it my way and we will see later how the consequences unfold.

"If you continue like this, you know how it will end. You're not stupid, you can weigh pros and cons, my offer is the best thing that can happen to you now. There is no choice to do, it's clear as the day, let me help you. Otherwise, I won't have any other choice than give this information to my father, and the police and the Justice League will come after you."

"Are you threatening me?" His voice sounded heavier; he was more used to talk with criminals than with his friend.

"I'm stating the obvious, nothing more." She told him before emptying her cup of coffee. Barbara seemed impassible, but inside she started to worry if he refuses all help, it will be necessary to stop him. Even more so in Gotham under Batman watch, maybe other would let it pass but Bruce has a zero-tolerance policy.

"Are you not worried that I reduce you to silence?" Aiden asked her lightly, it was more curiosity than a threat.

"You're not a murderer and you never hurt an innocent before. Your sole target is the murderer of your parents and no one else." She stated matter-of-factly, on a flat tone.

"Right. Sigh. You're always right, and coupled with your computer skills, you could become analyst at the NSA. You're losing your time in Gotham, get yourself a job in it, my arrest may earn you a big promotion." Emptying his cup in one big gulp he stood up and put on his coat. "I'll pay for the coffees."

"You can't go. Our discussion isn't over yet." She stood up and caught him by the arm. "Please, sit down and listen to me."

Sigh "Okay, I think you already know that after our chat, I'll disappear from Gotham. So, you'd better sound convincing." He sat back down.

"Listen, I know that it's hard to have your parents murdered. Several of my friends are in that case, but they got over it and resumed they life with a newfound determination." She chooses to talk from experience and something she knows had worked.

"It's different, you didn't exper…"

They were interrupted by a loud sound of brake, as a purple van stopped in front of the coffee and five goons disguised as clowned stepped off the van.

Leading them was the nightmare of all the inhabitants of Gotham, the Joker in the flesh.

Watching this notorious criminal approaching, everyone was petrified, this monster was a harbinger of death. He had surely the highest count kill in Gotham not without reason. The Joker, Batman nemesis. A crazy psychopath.

Green hairs covered by a purple hat, skin white as the snow and displaying a huge and insane smile. The joker was wearing a purple suit with a green and yellow shirt underneath and a purple pants. His gait was strange as much as the character is himself.

Boom

He took out a gun from his pocket and shoot the class door before passing through it, gun in hand, stepping on the glass shards, he stopped, and looked around before stopping on a beautiful girl. Followed by two if his goons he walked toward Barbara and Aiden, the others kept watch outside.

"Hello Barbara. How my you're on a date. Sorry for the interruption. How is she, boy? Now, back to my affairs, I want to show Barbara's father my private amusement park, but first I wish him to spectate as I turn his daughter into a coffee table edition..."

"You really think I will let you do as you wish, crazy bastard. Batman should have shoved your gun deep into your ass before pulling the trigger. I would want to see if you can still smile in that situation." Aiden's voice was extremely dark, and he seemed pretty agitated. She saw his mood through the camera, even if he is hiding it well, with the presence of the Joker here, he will soon explode.

Barbara knew it took a turn for the worse with the Joker unexpected arrival. Two persons in the same room, a mass murderer and a vengeful man with superpowers.

There was a good chance that this coffee end razed to the ground under Aiden's anger. The Joker is strong with his gas, all his gadgets and his strange way to cheat death every time, but he doesn't know Aiden has powers.

"Oh, I smile in every situation, you can ask the Bat. Little boy wants to be the knight in shining armor saving the damsel in distress? Noble but stupid. Or are you more interested in what her skirt is hiding?" He pointed his gun between Aiden eyebrows. It surprised him that the gaze of the boy didn't waver.

She couldn't show her abilities as Batgirl here in front of the public. She took out her phone stealthily to alert Batman, but the Joker kept an eye on her. "Gordon girl, give me your phone. Don't worry I'll take care of calling daddy. After all he has to come to the party I prepared for him. Now follow me."

"If I come with you won't kill everyone here?" She knew that negotiating with the Joker was pointless with his sick mind, but she had to give it a try. Aiden would surely take action if the situation became deadly.

"You're clearly the daughter of Commissioner Gordon. Playing the hero in every situation, even when your life is threatened. My mood is great today, so… I'll kill everyone here, it will make my day even brighter. Starting with you, I changed my mind. I'll record your agony and show it to your daddy over and over. I'm sure he will love it."

Boom

One shot, to lower abdomen near the spine, doomed to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. It would have happened if the bullet didn't stop in mid-air, still turning on herself slowly but non-moving forward.

"Oh, that's new." Boom, Boom, Boom. He started to shoot once again, but all the bullets were floating in the air, non-moving.

Suddenly, everyone was surprised, as if a flurry of wind blowed in the small coffee shop. The joker, his goons, and all the furniture's were sent flying.

Seeing an occasion, everyone escaped, running at full speed and didn't look behind and run into a hiding. It was chaos, fear make people act differently, and the Joker was an enormous fear maker.

"Did our dear miss Barbara hidden her secrets from everyone? Bad girl." The Joker bounce back, his crazy smile still on his face despite this setback.

Inside, Aiden was boiling with rage. Since the death of his family, the only persons he has left were Trent and Barbara, and today someone dared to threaten her life.

She was grateful; he saved her life but when she turned toward him, what she saw was hatred, it was almost written on his forehead. Maybe it was intentional but everything was trembling, his powers were almost out of control, and if his last string of rationality snapped, the consequences would be dire.

"Aiden, snap out of it. You can't let your emotions control you. It's not you." She tried to stop him before it was too late.

"It's me. Since we know each other, my hatred was pushing me forward." He said nothing else, but she heard sound strangely familiar.

He broke the bones of all the goons, and soon their limbs started to rotate and were pulled until they finally separate in a geyser of blood. It looked extremely gore, five torso and twenty limbs all over the place as a smell of copper invaded the room.

"Aaaaahh." He was laughing, the Joker was laughing as he saw his men being dismembered.

He kept him for the end. Barbara knew it, he would torture the Joker as he never did to someone before, maybe he would kill him.

"Aiden! Stop! hand them over to the police. You're not a murderer!"

What she didn't saw was the joker taking out a small gas bottle before throwing to them. Joker Venom! They would die if they breathe it.

With a telekinetic bubble, he stopped the gas and kept it inside. No one can take him aback within his detection range. The joker was done for.

"No, I will not, the Joker is a monster! He killed over a thousand victims and each time he escapes, it starts again. I won't let it happen anymore, not to my friends! Not like it happen to my family!"

The Joker was raised in the air and was gripping his neck as if to stop a hand gripping his neck.

"Aiden, please stop this madness. It's not in your nature. I know you ever lover superheroes. It goes against your principles."

"You are talking about Arthur Reed and he died several months ago! I will do what's need to be done."

Boom

A sound of glass breaking was heard. He destroyed all the windows and made float the shards in midair. In a flash, all the glass shards were stabbed in the Joker body. He looked like a porcupine, blood was running down the shards, and soon the floor was red with blood.

The Joker died. He died standing and with his iconic smile on his face.

"Now I am one. Farewell, Barbara." Putting on his coat, he made his way through the shop now littered with corpses and whom the floor was covered in blood. The goons of the Joker were groaning weakly, they would soon die from hemorrhage.

He finally took off the ground. Watching him leave and the scene that became their amiable conversation, she bites her lips and took out her phone before pressing Batman logo. It was an alarm linked to the Batcave. He made his choice. Now, it was time to act.

Her mood was low. What would be Batman reaction? She always had a hunch that Bruce relationship with the Joker was strange. What will he do when he will learn the death of his rival?

* * *

His new bank account has been frozen. Seems like Barbara hold her promise. Batman was coming.

(What do I do? I should find a military base somewhere, but before that, I have to leave Gotham.)

"You're interesting, extremely interesting."

A male voice sounded behind him. Aiden was flabbergasted, no one should be able to bypass his detection range. Maybe the Flash could, due to his absurd speed, but it was not the Flash. What was behind him was far more terrifying.

Turning around he saw it, and he knew was done for.

Doctor Fate, the lord of order and strongest sorcerer on Earth.

"You changed the fate of these people and your fate has been altered. You are an anomaly."

He didn't seem hostile. Aiden decided to talk to him.

"What do you mean?"

"The joker shouldn't die today and that girl should be in a wheelchair by now. As for you, you should have died all those months ago. Not even a lord of chaos would be able to do this." These revelations were shocking, he knew that Dr Fate has a huge list of powers, but learning that you should be dead is shocking. Calming down, he resumed their talk.

"Why do you tell me all this? Aren't you here to throw in jail as a member of the Justice League?"

"No. I can't see your fate anymore; I'll watch what you will do from now on."

After saying that, he disappeared into thin air.

* * *

**Batman POV**

**Evening**

**Batcave**

He just came back from the watchtower.

The death of criminal as notorious as the Joker didn't go unnoticed by the public.

To avoid encouraging criminal acts, the death of the Joker was put under the credit of commissioner Gordon who came to save his daughter from the Joker which led to the death of the said criminal.

It was on every news channel. All media was talking about it, Commissioner Gordon became the new hero of Gotham. At this rhythm, he'll soon get a promotion.

Seeing the Joker dead body was strange for him. More than once the Joker escaped death, but not this time. His body was filled with glass shards, he looked like a porcupine. The policemen at the crime scene were cheerful after seeing their worst nightmare finally dead. All the inhabitants of Gotham were happy to hear this news, and commissioner Gordon was hailed as a hero.

Everyone cheered after the Joker's death, everyone except Bruce Wayne. All these years of rivalry with the Joker were over.

It was a strange feeling. He wouldn't break down because of it, he has other villains to take care off, but it was strange.

The consequences still need to be taken care of. He was sure that a new villain or some group would appear to honor that crazy clown at some time.

Harley Quinn reaction is to be anticipated. Even if they broke up, and that she had beaten him up after that. Harley Quinn stays unpredictable; the Joker played with her mind for a long time. She found stability in her love story with Poison Ivy, but who knew what sort of mess the Joker death could create in her mind.

Sitting down on the chair, he closed all the news channel of the Batcave computer and resumed his search about Aiden's parents. He found an extremely interesting lead, something that even Aiden might not know.

His parents bought identities from the Dimitrov's, but before that he found nothing about them, even after searching all the databases of intelligence agencies. The truth appeared when he investigated the clinic founded by Aiden Father.

After their murder, Arthur inherited the clinic, but he sold it before coming to Gotham. Bruce searched everything about this clinic since the inauguration and found something interesting. Therefore, he asked Nightwing who is now active in New-York to investigate the clinic, and here it was the link to found Aiden parents past.

It was only a new lead but with sufficing hacking skills, and a little security breach of the Pentagon computer network, he found everything.

It would be an understatement to say that their origin and the situation that led to their death was messed up.

Anticipating a negative reaction from Aiden part, he went to the Watchtower to obtain help from the Justice League.

Aiden's full abilities were never seen, if he wants to kill, he may become extremely dangerous.

He showed his cruelness when he tore apart the limbs of these five goons, letting them die slowly of blood loss.

Currently, most of the members were occupied with their own responsibilities and even Superman wasn't on Earth actually, but he obtained support from two members of the League to stop the `Tormentor'.

If they engage in combat, the collateral damages risk to be great, but he hopes to avoid it with the revelations he has to say to Aiden.

The team that will act against him would be a trio: Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman and himself.

He was searching Aiden. After his chat with Barbara and the murderer of six people, he tried to take some cash out of his bank account.

Fortunately, he hacked into the system and froze his bank account. The last time he was seen, was by a camera before he took off the ground and disappeared in the sky.

Now knowing Aiden's identity, he searched his Internet history and found something interesting. The name of a general active twenty years ago in the army and with public ties to high grade officer of the New York Police Department.

(He will attack everyone who has an apparent link to the case, he is worsening his case.)

"Still thinking Bruce?" The voice of Diana echoed in his ear as she stepped out of the elevator.

"No, I just found where he could have gone after his disappearance of Gotham." Typing on the keyboard, a picture of Coast City appeared on the screen. "He is tracking a retired general of the US Air Force. Previously, he never was hasty…" He was interrupted by the voice of an unannounced guest.

"But he knows we are on his traces." A tall green man appeared out of the ceiling.

"J'onn, I already told you. I prefer when you use the door, and yes you're right." Looking toward him, Batman seemed a tad harsher.

"All is clear. It's time to go. We can't lose time, if he isn't stupid, he will disappear again after interrogating his target. We have to be there before him."

"There is something else, his abilities are improving each time I saw him. Be wary if you try to use mental attacks against him. Now, let's take my plane."

After short travel through the tunnels, a plane with the colors of Batman flew out of an unknown cave somewhere hidden in the vicinity of Gotham City.

Some time later, this same plane landed near Coast city and three of the most famous heroes of the Justice League stepped out of it.

"Too bad Hal is temporarily unavailable, Coast City is his home, he could have given us a hand."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6- Hide and seek**

* * *

"Seems like we're late. "

With an old villa of Italian style in sight, Martian Manhunter informed his teammate from high in the sky and invisible.

The villa seems really pretty luxurious and the inside should have been beautiful once, but now it was just a ruin. Windows were wracked, all the furniture's were reduced to pieces, the second floor was torn down.

"I'm going in." Passing through the wall, he started his investigations, still invisible. Faraway, sounds of sirens were nearing.

"Manhunter, I found the family of Mr. Banning, but he should still be inside. They fled the scenes as he was dragged in the upper floors. Did you find him?". Batman informed him mentally.

"Manhunter?"

J'oon was in front of the corpse of an old man, covered in blood.

"I found him. He is dead. Our target seemed to have tortured him, his phalanges were broken, several teethes ripped, and two ribs broken. One of the ribs pierced his lung, he died from asphyxiation. He isn't a skilled torturer. I don't know if it is good or bad."

"Diana, did you find his traces?" Batman's stoic voices echoed in Wonder Woman's mind.

"No. I found no sign of him, and Red Tornado watched the images from the satellite of the watchtower and followed him until the forest at the outskirts of the town. Then he disappeared, but I have a hunch that he is near.

"Could he have hideouts here?" Manhunter asked while flying toward Wonder Woman location.

"No, he is an amateur at it, not someone trained and experimented like Deathstroke or the League of Assassins." Batman responded them while landing his jet near Wonder Woman.

"So, he is fleeing under the cover of the woods."

J'oon landed behind them. They were in a wood outside Coast City. Clouds covered the moon in the sky, the place was dark. Batman was watching for movements with the night vision of his mask.

"Yes. Wonder Woman take off and watch the woods from up there. He came to these woods to hide. He knows we are on his traces. Otherwise he would have taken off the ground and fled the crime scene straight away. He wanted to lure us in these woods and use a guerilla tactic to take us out one by one to flee without being followed."

"How did he know we were here?"

"Last time I saw him, he emitted telekinetic waves around him, seem like his perimeter was larger than I thought. He is often hot-blooded, but this time he chose to hide and act carefully. Seems like he still knows how to calm down and act pragmatically."

Not far away, Aiden watched as Wonder Woman took off the ground and came to a stop in mid-air.

(What a lineup. Just for me, seems like Batman's opinion of me is pretty good. Wonder Woman will be a pain in the ass up there, her vision may be better than one of an eagle. And if I chose to fight, she will immediately come as a backup while I'm fighting one of the two left. I could take Batman out first, him and his fucking intellect, but Wonder Woman is an amazon, trained in the art of war, so she should be a resourceful strategist. Finally, there is Martian Manhunter, his powers are similar to mines, even if my telekinesis overpower his, with his telepathy he could disturb my thought process and prevent me to fight at full power. I have to flee.)

Aiden come down from the tree where he hides, and stop ten centimeters above the ground and started to float toward the east end of the woods, while doing his most to find the best trees to block Wonder Woman view. With his telekinetic field, he could feel Batman and Manhunter, even if he was invisible.

For once, Aiden used his precognition ability in a one-minute time frame, the maximum he could with an hundred percent of likelihood, even if it was tiring, he can't fail here. He has only two advantages, and he knew it, his precognition and the fact that the heroes that were after him weren't in the know that he could become invisible.

"Manhunter you hear something?" Batman asked his partner while watching the ground for footprints, not to avail."

"No, except of the natural sounds in a forest. It's strange. If he was in this forest, I should hear wind on his clothes or his heartbeat." The Martian has a super hearing and several senses unknown to men, it was strange to not find his target.

"He smartened up. There are no footprints, no sounds, odors, and Diana didn't saw him from up there. I think he created a telekinetic bubble around himself to block wind, odors and is surely flying slightly above ground."

It continued still five minutes before Aiden field reached farther in the woods; the trees were thinning, if he continued in this direction, he would be in Wonder Woman's sight.

(Shit! My best chance would be to make a U-turn and disappear in Coast City, but they are behind me.)

Stopping under a tree, he heard the slight sounds of Martian Manhunter nearing. It was unbelievable, of the two it was Manhunter the noisier, Batman was silent as a shadow. He could have been an assassin in another life.

Still unmoving, he saw a shadow just five meters in front of him, and instinctively used his telekinesis to make himself invisible in bending lights. Fortunately, it seems she didn't saw him, it was Wonder Woman, the moon was freed from the clouds and let shown her shadow.

(Now, I have an idea!)

Getting up, he started once again and finally put one kilometer between him and his pursuers; It took him more than twenty minutes of tedious hide and seek, but he succeeded.

(Hopes it work.)

Stepping out of the shadow of a tree, he headed toward another, but it was seen by Wonder Woman.

"Guys, he his one kilometer ahead of you. I'm intercepting him, I'll win some time until you arrive."

"Roger, be careful." Speeding up their turtle rhythm, they zoomed toward the location of Aiden.

He instantly felt them, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter flying toward him while Batman rushed into a sprint.

It took barely more than a second, and the Amazonian was already on him.

"Listen, we want to tal-" She had her lasso in hand but started talking, which Aiden didn't bat an eyelid. With a harsh telekinetic push, he sends her flying toward the ground and pulled all the trees in a one-hundred-meter radius and made them fall to the ground.

She was sent in the mud, the floor of this sector of the forest was marshy, and with the fall of the trees a huge cloud of dust raised. Aiden faded in the night till transparency and made a U-turn toward Coast city, not at full speed, otherwise the sonic boom would have dissipated his cover. Furthermore, keeping an invisible state for more than a minute was already a challenge for him.

Behind him, he heard a somber voice "Now, I'm angry!"

Seems like the Amazonian warrior, hero and phantasm of countless peoples didn't like to be covered in mud from head to toes.

Manhunter reached the place ten seconds later and saw a cloud of dust he dispersed using his telekinesis ability.

"Diana, where are you?" Asked telepathically the Martian.

"Heading north, he raised a cloud of dust to flee, I'm following him it was where he was going when I spotted him, he should be heading for the highway."

Her answer was logically right, but her tone seems filled with anger.

Batman finally arrived on the scene "Diana, come back. I think he manipulated us, it's been a while that's the number of trees is thinning, North wasn't a viable choice for him. He must have made a half-turn."

"We would have seen him." Was Martian Manhunter response on a tone of disbelief.

"No, like I told you at the cave, his ability seems to grow, at least he diversifies his use of it. So, either he found a way to become invisible, or he has an accomplice able to hide from us, but the latter possibility seems low. From what I learnt of him; he is pretty distrustful."

"I'm coming back." She landed beside them, with traces of mud on her attire. "What do we do now? With his speed, he should have reached Coast City since long and there are hundreds of ways to disappear, even more so for someone with his abilities."

Once at Coast City, Aiden used a basic way to disappear. Basic but efficient, creating an air bubble around him he jumped into the sea, disappearing like a submarine.

He thought to it a long time ago. Considering Batman and all his gadgets, Flash suits, etc. It was evident that heroes were resourceful, either in terms of money or technology. It wouldn't be surprising for them to have a satellite up there or be able to borrow one, with the support of the public. Underwater he was hidden from spying satellites. The only problem was if a magician was tracking him, he didn't have countermeasures against it, after all, he doesn't understand magic the least bit.

"We lost him. I'll launch an investigation about his victim to see what information he could have told him." Batman answered them before pushing a button on his wrist bracelet, seconds later, his jet landed near him.

"I'll go to the Watchtower to see the data collected by the satellite. Maybe I will see where he was heading to." Manhunter started to float above ground before heading into the distance, but they continued to talk via their telepathic link.

"He isn't stupid and I'm sure he knew we spied him from up there. You won't find him." It was Diana who answered as she watched him leave in the starry sky.

"As for me, I'll take a shower, be covered in mud isn't one of my hobbies. Bye Bruce, call me if you find something." The Amazonian and the jet parted way in the sky above Coast City.

Once at the Batcave, Batman started his research. Once again Alfred will say his favorite remark that he has to sleep more.

**Elsewhere**

**Several Hours Later**

Aiden was in a lost town in Kansas. He emerged from water in the bay of New-York; he hurried to take the first train on the depart. This city was filled with bad memories and it was the base of the new group, the "Titans". He was already exhausted after all that tension in playing to hide and seek with Justice League members, and the overuse of invisibility didn't helped.

"Smallville, huh? Is it on the map?" There were wheat fields as far as one can see, a new scenery for him.

"I'm exhausted, and they froze my bank account. Sigh, the money I have on me will be used in two days max." He found a hotel and paid in cash for a room.

Watching the stars by the window, he was thinking. (Nothing, he gave me absolutely nothing, and he died on me. You killed an innocent Aiden, congratulations, you're officially everything you hated.)

That night he was unable to sleep, every time he was on the brink to fall asleep, the image of the old man coughing blood and calling the name of his wife appeared in his mind.

Eating up his lunch in the hotel's lobby, he was reviewing his options. (I'm broke, lacking sleep, all my leads are worthless and the Justice League is chasing me. I can't imagine a worst scenario.)

Leaving the hotel, he entered a clothes shop and bought a new jean, a shirt, and a leather jacket. His clothes were filthy and stink after his little trip in the forest.

After this, he bought a coffee at a bar and took the photo of the Bialyan camps from his bag, one of the few things he took out of his apartment after his talk with the . Left in his bag was twenty dollars and the few items his parents left him.

The television was on and it talked about him. It was always the same thing, news about the Tormentor killing a retired General of US Air Force in Coast City, several speeches condemning his actions and a speech from Wonder Woman for the Justice League.

Heading outside, his bag on the shoulder, he heard someone yell. "Clark good to see you again after all this time in Metropolis. I'm reading all your articles. You're talented kid."

Looking toward the sound he saw a man around sixty or seventy talking to a black-haired man seemingly in his thirties, wearing old fashion glasses and shirt, beside him was a gorgeous blond woman around twenty.

When his gaze went on them, his blood grew cold, as when he fought against Nocturna an instinct kicked in warning him that these two individuals were dangerous, he hurriedly left the place heading toward the end of the street.

"I'm not so young anymore, Carl. I'm not a little kid. I have to say that it's pleasing to come back home and see all these old acquaintances." While walking, he continued to hear their conversation.

"Yeah, it's good to see you too, and who is that beautiful woman beside you?"

"Ah, yes sorry. Carl, this Kara, my cousin. She just came back from abroad. I wanted to show her where I grew up. Kara, this is Carl an old friend who had to bear with all the mess I made when I was a kid."

"Please to meet you." The voice of the gorgeous blonde was finally heard, with one last glance at the two of them, Aiden turn at the corner of the street and headed toward the train station.

"My pleasure, you can come to my home later. I'll tell all the mayhem your cousin made when he was a kid. I'm sure we will laugh all night." With a laugh, the old man climbed up in his pickup truck.

Watching him leave, Clark found his cousin behavior strange.

"What is it, Kara? You seem strange?" His tone was a bit worried, the big blue boy was really protector toward his newfound cousin, even if she had the strength to reduce a car into a can.

"I just saw a human. He seemed strange." There was a tinge of question as she talked to her cousin.

"You will find many people strange, don't worry, you arrived barely four months ago, and sometimes some human are strange, but don't worry it don't mean they are bad. Now, follow me, I have to show you the best restaurant of Smallville."

(What was that? When I faced Nocturna, the reaction wasn't this strong!) Sitting on a bench at the train station, his back was covered in cold sweet. That man, I saw him somewhere…. Clark Kent, the reporter of the Daily Planet. Seems like the reporter who denounce the secrets of everyone has a secret too. In normal times, I would play Sherlock Holmes and find what it is, but I don't have the time.)

Suddenly he heard voices from the people near him as they watched their phones

"You see that, unbelievable."

Coming behind them, he watches the screen of their phone from above their shoulder. It was a news channel A black woman apparently in her forties was talking.

"_Arthur Reed AKA Aiden Sharp, AKA Gotham Tormentor, son of Arnold Rickmer and Susan Lyd criminals who did inhuman experiments on prisoners in Bialya during the end of the cold war. They hide in New York during years after changing identities. He is continuing their legacy, this monster has to be put down, and I assure you that the US Army will act to neutralize him. It was our mistake to let them escape all those years ago, and we will put an end to this."_

(Bitch! Liar! You want to catch me so you spit on the name of my parents! Even if it's a trap, I swear you'll die fucking bitch! I have pictures of Rickmer he didn't even look like my father.)

A gale of wind was blowing on the train station, it took peoples aback who to run after their baggage's that rolled away and some girls were holding their skirts.

It took him a long time to calm down; it was obviously a trap, maybe orchestrated by Batman, her name was on the banner, even the location of the filming. The trap couldn't be more obvious. He couldn't let his temper get the better of him.

* * *

**Hi, I'm still not dead, it just the motivation that flew out of the window. It took time to catch it back. The chapter is shorter than usual, but hope you'll like it.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7- Leaving Las Vegas

It was two days since Amanda Waller's speech at the television. Aiden did his best to keep calm, but it proved to be difficult. Each day passing, the spit on his parent name grew, it was infuriating.

He was currently in a casino of Las Vegas, trying to discover what was the trap that was awaiting him. Which wasn't the idea of the century, as his photo was broadcasted on every news channel and every newspaper.

"We know nothing, Waller is a venomous snake, she trusts no-one and she act like the bitch she is!" The man he was talking to was a colonel expelled of the army recently. He came to Las Vegas for who know what. Whatever, he drunk and Aiden didn't even have to torture him to make him talk.

"Is there some backstory between you two?"

"No, but I know what type of bitch she is. She would use any way to obtain what she wants. She would put the worst criminals to shame. They nicknamed her the "Wall", to my mind the "Cerberus" would suit her better."

"I pay for the drinks." He said to the bartender before leaving. His wallet once again full, he stole a bit more than five-hundred dollars to some tugs in the streets.

Sigh (I'll have to go right into the trap if it continues like this.)

Being in Las Vegas wasn't the best idea with the sheer number of video surveillance, but that ex-colonel was his sole lead, which sounded awfully convenient. He was now in a town full of cameras and peoples, which would impede his fighting capacity. He wasn't a mindless killer.

(Fuck, why do I have the feeling that someone is playing chess with me, and that I'm being led by the nose?!)

Walking toward the train station, his precognition kicked in and showed him his death with a bullet in the forehead in the next ten seconds. Creating a telekinesis wall around him, he headed toward the biggest building around.

Bang!

The bullet came but crashed into the wall he raised around himself. Looking toward the origin of the shot, he saw a red light, but he couldn't stop, once again his precognition saves his life, he saw a man in black cloaked in a white cape appeared beside him out of nowhere to send a blast toward him.

Even before the Dr Light could appear and sent him fly, he sent a tremendous telekinetic push toward where he would be. He heard a howl and the glass wall of the hotel was destroyed and the said man appeared.

"So that was it, she created a trap, and if id don't come, she sends assassins. That guy was right, she is a bitch!"

Flying toward him, he heard a sound and was frozen when he saw the projectile.

(Boomerangs! These fuckers are attacking me with boomerangs!)

Grabbing it in midair, he sent it toward the sniper, but he dodged. He wanted to pull him from the roof toward the floor and let him fall, but a cat jumped in his way.

A cat, a human disguised as a cat! The Justice League was already strange enough, with aliens, magicians and all the others, but it was the first time he saw someone disguised like this. Even Catwoman suit wasn't like this. Did you see something with a tiger head on your head?

Strangely, the cat was an expert in martial arts. He was forced to fight him hand to hand, he was already multitasking, using precognition, detection field and blocking bullets from the sniper.

"So, what is your power? Purring?" The angered kitten ran toward him, and start his attacks with a punch in the plexus that Aiden blocked easily, and then followed with two blow to the chin that were just a lure to lend a heavy kick in the stomach.

Aiden was pretty proud of himself, since the fight with the Bat-family he became far better to a respond to the situations shown by his precognition during a fight. His movements were far more fluid than before, previously there was a lag between what he saw and the countermeasures used. Now, it was almost instinctive.

"What should I call you? Garfield? Totoro? Meowth? Snowbell? You want to eat a mouse? I can find you one."

"I'm Bronze Tiger, and I'll tear you into shred punk!" He seems pretty infuriated. While they were fighting three more boomerangs came toward him. This time he was more focused on his detection field and he found the children playing with boomerangs.

Taking control over them he sent them flying toward their new target from three different directions as he stops another shot from the sniper and a hail of bullet seemingly shot from a simple soldier from his attire.

The boomerang did the job, the guy hiding behind the building was skewered by his own weapons.

(He'll play with his boomerangs in hell!)

"Boomerang heartbeat just stopped. He is dead! Enchantress comes!" The soldier cried orders out loud.

"So, you're the leader of this bunch of assassins. it will be my pleasure to kill you, fucker!"

"No, you won't touch him!" He knew he was in deep shit, nothing but the name gave her away, a magician, a damn magician. More than ten women appeared, all identical and flighting above ground.

(Clones, so she can replicate herself. Fuck a magician it's a Russian roulette, you can't know what are their abilities.)

Suddenly, he felt oppressed as she or they raised the arm.

"Force field using telekinesis. Sorry for you, but I think I'm the best at it." Creating an omnidirectional push, he repulsed her hold and made disappear all her clones.

The Kitten calling himself Bronze Tiger jumped away before they started their attacks all at once.

The Enchantress sends a blast of green energy toward him which he evaded, he didn't want to try to block it, magic was pretty strange. The sniper and the soldier send another hail of bullets which did nothing except being reflected toward themselves.

The sniper evaded but the soldier was saved at the last second by the enchantress using her telekinesis. Behind him, Dr light fired a blast of energy toward him, but he blocked it before using telekinesis to broke his neck while the Enchantress was busied elsewhere.

"Huh, we lost light. We have to retreat! Waller you hear me?! It can't continue like this." The soldier was howling in his radio as Bronze Tiger stepped in once again.

"Enchantress, you can't take him on?" The leader of that team asked the woman.

"No, he dodges all my blast, overpower my telekinesis, and I have to protect you. You saw it yourselves, when I'm not near you, you become his target." Rick Flag knew perfectly, that young punk understood their relationship and use his weakness to keep the Enchantress at bay.

(That team is doubtful, two soldiers, a cat, a circus guy, a guy with light powers, and a magician. Furthermore, almost all of them are useless against me except the magician and the meta-human.)

What he didn't knew was that on theory, it had good chances to succeed, except that no one knew about his precognition.

Aiden didn't try to kill the soldier, the magician seemed in love with him, he didn't want to see what a magician out of control could do. His next target was the cat, kill half of their team should be a good deterrent, or an opportunity for his enemies. He wasn't sure anymore, since Waller announcement at television, he wasn't sure when he was manipulated.

"Come little kitten, I'll send you to hell. I heard that the dry cat food was delicious over there." He could break his neck without breaking a sweet but that sniper didn't let him breathe.

"Everyone falls back! Deadshot cover us!" The kitten and the soldier, seeing his uniform it was a colonel fell back toward the end of the street as the Enchantress raised a telekinetic wall and the sniper raised his firing rate.

He attacked telekinetically, but the enchantress blocked what she could and sent several blasts but these times, they seem more powerful.

(So, she has several types of blast. Interesting.)

Finally, they made it to a chopper landed in the hovering the ground. The Enchantress and the others attacked without stop so that he couldn't block the chopper.

In reality, he would let them go. He trained his power, but he neglected multitasking, using all his abilities at once and without break was tiring, and the faster that magician was out of the way, the more reassured he would feel.

Heading toward the dead body of the meta-human, he took his radio and put it to his mouth.

"I swear to you, whore. You will die, but before that you will suffer." He knew who he was talking to. Waller, he heard the soldier saying her name in the radio. The same person who spit in his parents in front of all the country.

"We'll see." Was the sole answer he got.

(Dr Light, I knew I knew him. Nightwing putted him behind bars. What is he doing here? he escaped? No, Waller is in the army. They're using prisoners to do their dirty work ?!) After what he heard about her and her methods, it wasn't really surprising.

Leaving Las Vegas would now be a problem, after a fight in the middle of the street with criminals sent by Amanda Waller. What would come next would be either the army or the Justice League.

Before, Aiden thought that this plan using his anger to lure him into a trap was created by Batman, but it seems he was wrong. It was created by a bitch overzealous and ready to do everything to attain her goal.

(I use my invisibility under their nose last time, I hope they don't know about it or leaving them behind will become difficult.)

Ready to take off the ground, he heard someone calling him from behind.

"Please wait a second, Mr. Sharp." Turning around, he saw a Caucasian female with brown eyes and light brown hair in a business suit and a short skirt. "I'm Mercy Graves, Lex Luthor assistant and bodyguard. Mr. Luthor would like to meet you to talk about your current problem."

He was a bit worried around her, first he heard about Luthor in the streets of Gotham, he hides a lot behind his media image, and more importantly, he didn't detect her arrival, she popped out of nowhere.

(It starts to become annoying, Dr Fate, I understand he isn't Earth mightiest magician for nothing. But why couldn't I detect a simple bodyguard?!)

"I heard about Lex Luthor. Why would I trust him? If I cooperate with him, I'm sure I'll become a priority for the Justice League."

"Because he is your sole chance for the time being and, in the future, you may not have to flee anymore." Her answer was calm and concise.

"Lead the way." He was pretty much out of options.

Mercy took out some strange device out of her suit. (What is that thing?)

"To the manor." Was the only thing she said, and they disappeared in a flash of light. They appeared elsewhere, in what appear to be a luxurious manor hall. The room was huge, walls were covered in large oil paintings like those in a museum, the floor was in marble and several statues were disposed here and here.

"Follow me." Passing by a huge stairway covered in a red carpet, they passed by a luxurious corridor before emerging in front of a closed door. Luthor bodyguard knocked before opening the door after being told to enter.

"Mr. Sharp, a pleasure to make your acquaintance." The bald man he saw so many times on TV was here. Getting up from his desk chair, he walked to him and gave him a handshake.

"All pleasure is mine, Mr. Luthor." Aiden was on guard, he knew about Luthor. He pissed off the blue boy scout pretty badly and the integrality of the Justice League more than once, but he was still a public figure loved by the crowds. Hell, he was even elected Secretary-General of the United Nations.

He sat on the free chair in front of Luthor desk, as the said man took out a bottle of whisky from a wooden shelf.

"A drink?" Luthor took out two glasses beautifully carved, put ice cubes in the glass before pouring the drink.

"Thanks." Taking the glass in his hand he took a sip before resuming their conversation. "Your charming assistant told me that you could help me."

"Yes, we could say that. All the country is running after you, and Amanda Waller is determined to send you to the grave. Nice job by the way, I found Waller despicable. She would be ready to void every individual right if it could help her cause. What you faced was the "Task Force X" also called "The Suicide Squad". A group of prisoners forced to do the dirty work for Waller."

"I know, seeing Dr Light and Captain Boomerang who should still be behind bars was pretty obvious. I imagine that this task force is secret. The idea of deploy super powered criminals in the country wouldn't be pleasing to the public opinion."

"Yes, you're pretty smart, I like it…"

"Sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Luthor but I'm running out of time. Even if I hate Amanda Waller to the core, she isn't my main objective. I would prefer to know what is the solution you have for me." Emptying his glass in one gulp, he put it on the desk without letting Luthor out of his sight.

"This is where you're wrong. Amanda Waller is your main objective; she and the murderer of your parents are one." Luthor told him with an impassible face, even if inside he was gloating.

Aiden was in disbelief. Even if he was wary of Luthor, it was true that Waller perfectly fitted the description. Military and political power, active during the cold war, has assassins to her disposal. The only strange thing would be her age, at the time his parents were exfiltrate from the camps, she would have been 22. Pretty young to be this influent.

"Think to it, if she helped your family in the past. Why would she be hunting you down now?" Luthor gets up, glass in hand and walked toward the bay window.

"Tell me." He wasn't leaving Luthor out of his sight, eager to know more.

"At this time Waller was young but far from stupid, ready to do everything to climb higher in the hierarchy. She led experiments on your parents and other peoples, refugees saved by her and who were devoted to her. Her goal was to create super soldiers, her project was illegal, she wanted to present the final results to her superior once it would be ready.

In the end, she failed and your parents escaped during a massive breakout. She tracked all the breakaways down, except your parents, they were smarter and found a way to disappear." Turning around, he had a smirk on his face. Perfectly sure that he played him around masterfully.

Aiden was in turmoil, all the pieces were assembling perfectly, maybe too perfectly; but he had the answer he was searching for months.

"Why would have she painted a target on her forehead? All that propaganda against my parents was certain to encourage me to kill her." Looking at Luthor he asked his last interrogation.

"Because, if you attack her, and try to kill her; Whether you know the truth won't matter anymore, she would be the victim and you the aggressor. She was worried that heroes of the Justice League would be ready to help you, but in that case, there would be tied by the law. Now, 2 members of the task force X are dead, she can alter the facts to say to her superiors that she was in Las Vegas and you attacked her. You are checkmate." Emptying his glass, he put in on his desk before looking down toward Aiden.

"That's why I have an offer for you. I can protect you, even clear your name and the name of your family. If you accept to work for me." His smile seemed veritable.

"Thank you for your offer, Mr. Luthor, but when I started all this mayhem after the death of my parents, I knew that death could be a possibility. I'll conclude what I have started." Giving Luthor a handshake, he chose to refuse.

"Marcy, you can drop Mr. Sharp where he wants."

Raising an eyebrow, he asked Luthor "Where is Waller?"

"New-York." He replied a smile on his lips.

"New-York it is." He and Mercy Graves soon disappeared in a flash of light.

Seeing them leaving, Lex used his computer to contact the other members of "The Light". "Gentleman, I inform you it was a success, the timeframe we wanted to create will happen soon." His voice was gleeful, He was an expert at manipulation since childhood, but the fun it gave him never changed.

"Good, I'm ready any moment. I hope you played him well, when he'll learn the truth he will become totally nuts. The show will be interesting" Klarion answered.

"That was our goal in the first place. The more attention his confrontation with Waller and the Justice League get, will give us more liberty to act." This time it was Vandal Savage who talked.

"Yes, but I regret the fact that I didn't did it. He would have become our loyal pawn. Playing with men's minds is always so pleasing." Queen Bee said in a giggle.

"You're wrong, I may have manipulated him, but he was wary, my surveillance system showed that he encased himself in a bubble. Your Pheromones would have been useless." Luthor answer was spot on and stopped Queen bee in her speech. "We can track him down if he succeeds to escape to this fight and take control of him, I put a nano tracker in his drink, it seems the instinct we guessed him acted only in case of danger, he was oblivious to it."

"Good. Now, we have to make sure the Justice League knows that he will attempt to Waller life." This was Savage Last declaration before putting an end to the communication.

(Aiden, you should have known that Vertigo was double crossing you. He is so haughty and can't tolerate even the tiniest disrespect, that kind of man enjoy himself only when you kneel to lick his foot. You're too green for this, at least this way, you have a use.)He thought while looking out of the windows, a bright smile on his face.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Revelations

* * *

He didn't trust Luthor the least bit. To gain his position in the United Nations, he must have manipulated a lot of peoples.

Furthermore, he is a villain and one of the worst, to piss off the Justice League and be unscathed, even hailed as a role model, he has to be one hell of a bastard.

As for his work offer, it seems doubtful, he shouldn't be the only met-human in a desperate situation, he could have found others, who aren't already in the middle of a war with the army and the Justice League. Or found someone more powerful than him.

The problem was that Luthor spotted his problem and exploited it. Waller was his only lead left, except he has no more clue, he was in a dead end. Being used as a pawn is an infuriating idea, but he couldn't do otherwise.

"I have to find a way to reach Waller. Something unexpected, and I have to create a viable plan to take on the Justice League and the Titans based in New-York. Being in their home ground is problematic enough by himself.

Waller isn't stupid. She knows my powers, my values and with the last fight in Las Vegas she must have leant even more. I need to do something I would never do usually, out of my normal thinking."

Mercy Graves teleported him in a dark corner in Brooklyn and gave him Waller position. A luxurious hotel in Manhattan. Walking through New-York incognito brought back memories, his old high school, the clinic his parent built in the middle of the worst part of the city.

He was sure that in a near future, everyone who knew him would spit on him. What he was preparing to do would make of him what he hated in the eyes of everyone, a villain.

He made a detour toward the school grounds, and remarked several persons surely federal agents watching the school and invisibly made his way toward Jessica. Seeing her like that wasn't pleasing, she became thinner and her mood seem low. His old classmates were talking behind her back and their accusatory glances were hardly bearable to her. When he established his plan to find the murderer of his parents, he didn't took in consideration the impact it would have on her life.

(I'm so sorry Jessica. It's all my fault.)

Leaving the school with a downcast mood, he made his way toward Trent home. Using his detection field, he sensed Trent and his wife playing with their daughter. All around his home he detected several people, normal at first glance but all of them were armed.

(Your toys are useless against me. I'm pretty sure that if I show up, you'll point your guns toward them. Waller really deserve to die using these cowardly tactics against the persons she swore to protect.)

After a short walk, he saw the hotel. Finding a place to hide, he put all his focus on his detection field, everything was calm, except some security guards and suspicious cars at the corner of the street. In normal time, it would be normal but to prepare a fight against someone like him it was insufficient.

Scanning the building carefully, he found a hundred guards hidden armed with grenades launcher and gas cartridges. Devices he didn't recognized were displayed in the corridors; it should be sonic weapon like what Batman used against him as all of them were wearing headsets.

Waller was in a stronghold underground with the magician and the colonel who attacked him in Las Vegas. Deadshot and the Kitten didn't seem to be there, surely hidden in ambush, even if the kitty is pretty useless.

"Seems like she prepared for our chat but it shouldn't be a problem. The real problem will be the Justice League, Waller surely contacted them, if they don't help her, they would become hypocrites in everyone opinion. I have to prepare countermeasures, either to lure them elsewhere or neutralize them."

Now, he just had to fool someone stupid enough to send the Titans elsewhere. This part of the plan wasn't something he could take pride in, but it was necessary.

The plan he created to catch Waller was pretty smart and well thought, he wouldn't have to fight in, he will neutralize them all at once. Just have to catch her and get out. The Justice League was the problem, he didn't knew why the Joker death was falsified, if it was an helping hand of Batman or out of interest. But this time, he can't help anymore, to the eyes of everyone, he is the enemy.

Finding the worst places of New-York was easy for him, as a child he listened to Trent police story. To a child it was interesting the hero tracking the bad guys, it was a shame that after Trent resigned, he never recounted them anymore.

Breaking into the stronghold of an arms dealer Trent once talked about, he knocked out all the persons inside. Making his way toward the stockpile of arms, he rummages through everything and finally found what he was searching for: explosive and detonators.

Two hours later, he was ready. His plan to distract the Titans was in place, he created countermeasures for almost every member of the Justice League, even if some of them were doubtful and may not work. As for catching Waller, with what he prepared for her, it was almost perfect, the only variable which everything depend on would be the Enchantress reaction.

Two hundred meters away, in a dark alley, he sat on a smelly trash bin and focused on what he has to do. Putting all his thought toward the building were Waller was hiding. In less than one minute a strong telekinetic barrier was erected around the building and underground, you can enter, but nothing can exit.

"Woah, raising the barrier was difficult, but keep it standing is surprisingly easy."

Getting up, he made his way toward the building before someone notice something out of place. He made test before but not with a whole skyscraper.

"Now, phase 2." In a thought, he applied the second part of his plan, extract all the air inside the barrier.

Air was extracted at amazing speed, in less than a minute air became rarer, enough for them to notice it but not to affect them. Passing through the barrier, he made his way toward Waller stronghold located underground while invisible.

He knew it would work, Waller didn't knew about it, as for the Justice League it was fifty-fifty. This is why he didn't knocked them out directly, if Waller notice it, she may flee with the Enchantress and alarm the League.

Once in front of Waller stronghold, he sped up the extraction of air, so much that it became extremely difficult for those inside to breath and most of them started to fall from hypoxia, except him who create a bubble around him.

Using his telekinesis, he moved out the gigantic steel door similar to a bank safe out of its hinge and moved it out of the way.

His precognition was working on a one-minute scale, the maximum he can use it with certainty. What he saw was displeasing, a small fight with those inside followed by the Enchantress teleporting Waller and her men out of it and letting him alone like an idiot.

(Hope the Enchantress will act my way, or I'll have to fight the Justice League for nothing.)

"Hey Waller. Happy to see you!" Before he could end these words, Waller men's were firing toward him with strange weapons firing red laser at him, but he blocked them all raising a telekinetic barrier in front of him.

Moving his eyes toward the Enchantress he started to talk to her.

"Listen Enchantress, let me kill Waller, take your lover with you and live the way you want for the rest of your live. Once Waller dead, you just have to take retrieve, destroy or do whatever you want with what she uses on you to hold you on a tight leash."

Looking toward Rick flag he continued.

"I'm sure you know where Waller hide everything, destroy the data about you and take her see the world. All of us will benefit of it."

"You-" Waller wanted to say something but he restrained her using his telekinesis, she couldn't move, talk or anything else. She could only breathe and watch as a spectator, powerless.

Everyone else in the room was knocked out from hypoxia, it was the first thing he did entering the room, create a barrier around the soldiers and let them suffocate.

"I will never be-" The so heroic wanted to say something but the Enchantress put her hand on his torso and they disappeared.

(Success.)

"Waller, I told you, you would suffe-"

He didn't end his phrase because his precognition showed him that the same team of heroes who tracked him down at Coast City will arrive.

(Too bad I can't keep it that way all day, I'll have to switch back to a ten seconds frame.)

"We have to go." Raising her in the air, he made his way out of the building flying with her floating behind.

Trying to leave the city, a bolt of green energy was sent toward him, which he avoids but it forced him to land in an old neighborhood. Turning around he saw a large group of superheroes: Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and the Titans, Nightwing, Troya, Starfire and Raven.

"Surrender Arthur, you are outnumbered and have nowhere to flee. This will be my last warning." Batman told him as the others encircled him.

"Not so sure of that." He said with a smirk while watching Batman. "You may have other problems in hand. Let's see…why not several explosive devices spread over all the train stations of New-York and that may explode in, woah you'll have to hurry you have barely five minutes left." Watching his watch, he told them with exaggeration.

"You're bluffing." Starfire told

Meanwhile, Martian Manhunter was trying to pry in his mind, but he was strong, his psyche became strong with his telekinesis.

"You may not be use to humans' facial expressions and body language, but I'm sure that Batman over there know I tell the truth."

"Really, you would go against your principles and put innocent in dangers?" Nightwing asked him weapon in hand.

"No, no one will be in danger. I know you; you are heroes, you will save them." Aiden told them with a tinge of sadness in his voice.

Batman was watching him carefully, using all his knowledge to read people and told to Nightwing. "The Titans go find these explosive. Hurry we don't have time to lose." Not letting Aiden of his sight as Raven teleported the Titans, he told him "You've changed, and not in a good way."

"I didn't have much of a choice." His mind freed from maintaining the building around Waller hideouts, he was back at full power. Creating barriers around the three he starts to pump the air out.

Manhunter immediately became intangible and passed through it before flying toward him, but Aiden sidestepped and sent him fly but the alien stabilized in midair visibly unscathed. Wonder Woman broke through the barrier using raw strength and attacked him with a punch at full speed, a tempest of punch, not as fast as Flash, but still impressive.

During this time Waller, who was freed from his telekinesis tried to distance herself from the fight, but even during the fight Aiden use the Amazonian blow to propel himself in her direction.

Aiden parried those he could see, and those who succeeded to touch ground painlessly on his telekinetic armor. Pushing her away with telekinesis, he turned toward Batman. During this short fight with Wonder Woman, Batman broke the barrier using one of his gadgets.

He sent several devices, small as a coin they stopped in midair and followed Aiden while emitting ultrasounds.

"I already created countermeasures against that. Try to be innovative, Batman." He took hold of them and sent them toward Martian Manhunter that was using his telekinesis trying to break trough his armor. The ultrasonic devices made him howl before he destroyed them one by one.

Taking advantage of the fences in the neighborhood, he raised them in the air and sent them toward his three opponents, bending the fences around them using it as ties to immobilize his enemies.

The results were deplorable, Wonder Woman and Manhunter broke them by force and Batman freed himself using acid to destroy the steel fence.

Freeing herself, Wonder Woman took her lasso hanged to her waist and called to her ally. "Manhunter, give me a hand." The green man nodded and raised his hand.

Aiden felt Manhunter pulling him as he wanted to avert Wonder Woman lasso, but the time Martian Manhunter hold him for gave her a golden opportunity.

Once tied by the lasso, Wonder Woman made several turns on herself at high speed and sent her fly high up and she followed as the lasso was still tied to his arm.

"Clever for a woman aging back to antiquity." He knew what she did, she led the fight in the air to lessen the possible use of his telekinesis.

"You already angered me last time throwing me in the mud, but I'll be nice and give you a piece of advice: Never talk about a woman age, even if she has been gifted longevity." Her smile was bright, but not her voice. Creepy combination

"Manhunter bring Waller to a zeta tube, we need her out of reach." Batman told his comrade before touching the button on his gauntlet to call drones.

Seeing the Martian bringing Waller away, Aiden anger flared up.

"NO!" He flew at top speed toward the fleeing two, but he was harshly brought back by Wonder Woman using her lasso.

"Stop protecting that bitch and play the hero! She is a monster! You're an Amazonian warrior, a fucking war machine born and bred." His anger reached a peak and the woman would soon face it.

"That's untrue, fighting is for us a form of art. Amazons choose arts as way to express themselves, I would be grateful if could keep your preconceived idea to yourself."

"Art? you want art? I'll show you!" Putting everything he could in his libs, he flew toward at his maximum speed and sent his blow. Even being herself, a blow this powerful could be pretty devastating.

Seeing his anger, she had a bad feeling about it and cross her gauntlet in front of her chest to protect herself. The impact created a deafening sound and sent the two of them flying in opposite direction.

He didn't even look how Wonder Woman was, he made his way toward Waller at top speed. He saw Waller and Martian Manhunter in front of an old and decrepit workshop, and a light was scanning Waller up and down.

"Amanda Waller B-2- "He saw the future; they would disappear in a flash.

"NO!" In an instant, the workshop was razed to the ground, Waller was unscathed as Martian Manhunter protected the two of them from the all the flying debris.

Wonder Woman came behind him and sent a blow that make him plummet toward the ground, before touching ground, he stabilized himself and looked toward Batman standing in front of him.

"You have two minutes left and the Titans will be back, you barely contain the three of us. Your change of winning is slim."

"I concur, you should surrender." The man talking was in the air looking toward them. Here he was, the favorite hero of America, Superman. The hero of Metropolis. The Man of Steel. Last son of Krypton. The beacon of hope. The Boyscout.

"I thought you were out of Earth for Business." Was the question of Wonder Woman as she raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, it was true, but when I came back, my cousin wanted some time alone to talk about everything without being interrupted by the business of the League. Furthermore, Superboy did a great job in Metropolis during our little trip in the countryside."

"Sorry to interrupt you, but I have some business to settle. You'll talk later." Aiden just learnt something incredible. The sensation he felt in front of Superman was exactly the same he felt in Smallville when he saw Clark Kent, the reporter. Clark Kent is Superman.

With that said, he sent Wonder Woman barreling into Superman before heading for Waller, when suddenly he felt something strange, giving him goosebumps, making his way in his mind, forcing his thoughts to open.

"Batman I've established a link. You can start." Turning his head, he saw Martian Manhunter, it was him, in his mind. Batman started to remember everything he discovered during his investigations.

"You have to learn the truth about all of this, about your parents, about yourself, the truth about your past."

"Wait something is strange, his mind is resisting unconsciously, like someone who underwent a mental conditioning. I'll try to keep the link steady. Go!" Martian Manhunter forced his mind to steel himself toward the unconscious onslaught he was facing.

"Waller has hidden a lot of facts about this case, but the main argument was true. Your father is the professor Rickmer and your mother a mercenary helping him in his researches. They did experiments on you; you power came from here.) He saw Batman memories about medical procedures, and the files of a plastic surgeon. (Their goal was to-).

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" He cried at the top of his lung holding his head, his power was surging under his anger and this foreign link in his head made him send is power directly into it.

"AAAHHHH!" Martian Manhunter howled in paid while holding his head under the splitting pain. His foe used raw power, without an ounce of mastery, all that anger was thrown directly at him. Finally, he fell unconscious, unable to bear it.

"Manhunter!" Crouching near him Batman checked him but saw nothing out of place. "Wonder Woman take him to the Titan Tower and come back. I use a distress signal to call Miss Martian for help."

Superman was watching Aiden as he got up. His expression was strange, his gaze was not demented, but we couldn't say it was the gaze of someone in a perfect mental health.

"You wanted to enter my mind! You're like Waller, you lie to achieve your goal! What do you wanted to do with me?" Raising Batman in the air, he tightened his grip until Batman bones started to emit sounds. But before he could go all the way, Superman sent a powerful punch that sent him at the end of the street before he could stop himself.

"What happened? He seems strange." Superman raised his friend, while giving him a hand to get up.

"Rickmer files mentioned mental conditioning to keep too powerful powers in leash. Maybe we touched something we shouldn't have. I hope it don't worsen any time soon, if we believe Rickmer notes, his powers non-limited by conditioning were extremely powerful. That's why he had to reprogram him and him forget he had it in the first place. Otherwise, they would have been found out."

Meanwhile Diana AKA Wonder Woman was bringing Martian Manhunter toward the Titans Tower.

"Let me here, Diana…. I feel his mind in turmoil, I'll take a moment to rest and go back to you all… You'll need me to neutralize him." He was whispering, barely able to talk.

"You're not in condition to fight. Let us manage this, we got it." She answered him still flying.

"You don't understand. His mind this raw power, it felt like a dam ready to break at any moment. I fear that even the four of us won't be enough to hold him if that dam, the shackles break. I felt the tremendous power it was holding back. Let me here and join back the fight, we must neutralize him before it happens." Mustering all his strengths he told her on a weak but hurried tone.

On the other side, Aiden was entangled with Batman and Superman. Batman was more annoying than threatening, but Superman blow needed all his attention to muster strong enough barriers to block them.

During his confrontation with the blue boyscout, they almost destroyed all the neighborhood. Sending blow after blow, they were propelled toward the building and passed through the walls before exiting by another. In the meantime, Waller stole a car and made her way out.

Seeing her flee, Aiden finally decided to try his ace hiding in his sleeve. (Let's see if it works just as good in reality as in theory.)

He punched twice in Superman chest, each of these blows delivered a small impact to his heart, these two waves gave him a mini heart attack but it wasn't the main goal. Superman widened his eyes and hold his chest but it didn't last more than a second.

Now free of Superman attack during one second maybe more, he started the second phase. "Now that the Martian is down, nothing is protecting your mind." With a slight telekinetic pressure on the alien brain, he put him to sleep and with a pressure in another part of his brain gave hive nice nightmares. To tell the truth, it was a gambling, he is alien but humanlike, so he tried his theory while hoping to not mess up his mind.

Batman run to Superman and took his pulse. Meanwhile, Aiden caught up with Waller, ripped off the car door and caught her. Sensing Wonder Woman coming toward him, he raised a dome barrier around the two of them, just in time for the Amazon to crash into it.

"Now Waller, we'll have our chat and no one will interrupt us." He told her while watching her in the eyes.

Behind them, they heard impact sounds, Superman has woken up. He and Wonder Woman were trying to break it using brute force, but this time the barrier he created was extremely resisting.

"Did you kill my parents? Why did you save them in the first place?" Feeling the strain on his mind to keep the barrier standing despite these two heroes attacks, he knew he had to be fast. But he let nothing appear on his face, not willing to let her know, he had to appear in control of the situation to intimidate her.

He didn't knew who it was, but Luthor explication seem highly plausible.

Waller raised an eyebrow and said on a tone full of sarcasm: "You know nothing. Yes, I kill them, I killed your parents Rickmer and her bitch, these inhuman monster-"

Crack

Breaking his arm, he told her "Enough of your lies, I want the truth, or they will have nothing left of you at the end."

"I didn't lie. They knew too much. They undergone plastic surgery after escaping from my grasp like the rats they were, and opened their clinic as a cover to resume their experiments."

He was listening but it seems surreal, Batman told the same thing. Inside his head he was assembling these words with his parent's eccentricity and abnormal behavior he remarked before.

"When I heard about the Tormentor, I knew you survived, I wanted to took my time to face you, and you were in batman courtyard, he is pretty territorial." Still a smirk on her face she continued to talk, seemingly unshaken by Aiden gaze which became extremely disturbing.

Meanwhile outside the barrier, a blur red and yellow arrived beside the heroes of the Justice League.

"Finally, you're here. Fastest man alive, but always the last to arrive." Superman told seeing the Flash beside him.

"We don't have time to joke. Flash try to change your density and pass through this barrier." Batman exclaimed while looking inside the barrier where Aiden mental state seems to take a turn for the worse. His health seems to plummet too, under their onslaught, he gets nosebleed to keep the barrier standing.

"I'm on it." Putting his hand on the barrier, he started to vibrate his molecules. "It will be tricky; he is modifying the density non-stop to prevent me to go through. Give me some time and I'll do it."

"You're just a street rats they experimented on, like they did when they worked for me before. If you're still alive now, it's because they couldn't reproduce your powers after hundreds of experiments. Even your true parents probably died at the hands of the ones you consider as your family. Ahah." She started to laugh at this idea.

"How ironic. You tried to avenge the murder of your parent's murderer." Once that said she put back a formal expression on her face despite the suffering caused by her broken arm. "You are the criminal in everyone opinion, but I am a hero, I eliminated a threat to this country."

He didn't hear these last words, when he understood he wasn't their son, but instead the orphan son of their victims, something snapped in his head. An incredibly power flow spilled into his mind, but not only this, a thought.

(If you learn the truth kill yourself and everyone else around. Leave no witnesses alive.)

It was at this moment that completely lost it. His power was going out of control in a frightening way. His power, unblocked, his true powers weren't under his control anymore.

Watching from afar, Martian Manhunter said "Too late."

Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman and Batman were watching as Waller disappeared as if dust was blown by the wind. The barrier ceased, instead Aiden was in the middle of a storm, and everything around disappeared into smoke.

He sent a tremendous push toward Flash who avoid as he saw the air distortion aiming at him, running ten meters away. Turning his head, he saw the building behind his previous position disappear into smoke as well.

"What is happening to me? Why did I control nothing? AAHH! MY HEAD! IT HURT!" Holding his head, he involuntarily sent a multidirectional blast reducing everything into dust.

"What is happening? Why did he become so powerful at once?" Flash was flabbergasted by this unexpected power up. "His condition is strange." Watching the one who try to pulverize him he saw him acting strangely.

"He disassembles matter, all these buildings and Waller were atomized." Batman said after the four of them backed away. "Something snapped, brain has limits to protect itself like the human body. We don't use all our force or we could injure ourselves, this is the same thing but for brain. Rickmer experimentation was on gifting telekinesis but not only, he wanted to disable biological limits to use it at 100%, usually we use a tiny percentage of the process capacity of our brain. That's why he is so powerful." Batman explained his conclusions.

"I understand, but why does it seem as if somebody is controlling him and his making is powers go awry deliberately?" Wonder Woman asked beside them.

"Maybe a security put by Rickmer, several countermeasures put in place for several specific situations. Learning the truth about himself seems to be one of them. He attacked you and seeing as he is bleeding, we can hypothesize that he must kill himself as well, but to my mind his brain powered up with his power, it can't force him to kill himself, but he is going out of control. That's why he and us didn't gone into smoke. He is desperately holding himself back." Batman finished his explication.

Aiden was bleeding by the ears, eyes, nose and mouth. His sight was blurred seeing only patch of colors, and he could barely feel his body anymore, he was numb. He could feel this unbridled power but was unable to tame it.

"What do we do? Even I can't go near that atomizing tempest, who what will be the consequences if we don't stop him fast." Flash said visibly nervous.

"Best case, he dies. Worst case, New-York is atomized." Batman said bluntly.

"Batman, it's not a best case I can accept. Can't I go through, my durability may protect- "Superman raised an idea.

"No, we're not talking about your usual brawl but of the law of physics, you are composed of matter, and he is disassembling matter." Batman said sternly to his friend.

"You have an idea to propose?" Asked Wonder Woman.

Looking at her, he answered: "Maybe. You think the enchantment on your lasso can work on him?"

"Yes. It was created by the gods and can biologically reset someone to free them from external influences, mind control is one of them. But we still have a problem, we all saw how he seem to predict every of our moves even before we did it."

"Precognition. We'll have to find a way to pass through this storm of destruction and slow him down to give you some time. A chance that Flash finally came, he can act before our foe think to evade." Looking at the storm in front of him that was annihilating everything, sometimes blast was expelled outwards and were destroying the surrounding buildings.

"I can help. I'll enter in his mind and try to give you time. You'll have to act before he expels me from his mind." Walking weakly from behind them, Martian Manhunter told them while looking at Aiden.

"No, you can't! The last confrontation clearly affected you-

"We don't have any other choices!" Batman and the Martian howled together.

"Superman, go to the Batcave to retrieve the chunk of Nth metal in my safe. Flash you'll make all the peoples in two kilometers radius evacuate, once done take an end of Wonder Woman lasso, at the first occasion, tie it to Aiden. Wonder Woman be ready for flash signal."

"I understand the majority of the plan, but why Nth metal?" asked Flash.

"Just in case."

After that, Superman took off the ground speeding toward Gotham City as Martian Manhunter was steeling his mind before trying to enter Aiden mind.

Batman sent several signals via his gauntlet and hacked into the NYPD system to order the evacuation of the island of Manhattan.

During that time, Flash was transporting peoples one by one outside the security zone. Once they realized they were transported elsewhere instantaneously, peoples begun to panic.

"I'm ready." Manhunter announced.

"I just finished." Flash said while eating a chocolate bar.

Wonder Woman made a slight nod.

Martian Manhunter focused and send his thoughts toward Aiden mind. He was violently debating, his thoughts were incoherent, worse than a savage beast.

In Aiden mindscape, he was confronting him. He was in the defending end, but winning wasn't the goal.

Outside, Flash saw lags appeared in the tempest, before he couldn't go through but J'oon plan seems to work. Taking an end of Diana lasso of truth, he ran through the holes formed in the tempest that for him was unmoving and tied it to Aiden left arm before making his way back.

"NOW!" Once out he informed his friend.

"J'oon get out!" Batman told his friend whose eyes soon focused once again, but he fell on his butt under the strain of his mental fight.

"I'm back with your stone" Superman landed beside them.

Diana, on her side after hearing Barry signal sent her power into her lasso to biologically reset her foe, and the effects weren't late, after a heart wrenching cry, Aiden collapsed.

Making his way toward him, Batman checked his pulse.

"He has no physical damages, but it would be preferable to have him brain scanned. All this blood came out from an overuse of his abilities."

In a black flash of light, the Titans appeared, and seeing the scenery around them, they were astounded. There wasn't much traces of destruction except the big holes in the floor resulting of some blasts that were sent toward the ground, but everything around just disappeared. There were in the middle of one-kilometer area free of construction in the middle of Manhattan.

"The fight wasn't so easy?!" Nightwing told after scanning the surrounding and the stone in Superman hand.

"It's an understatement." Said Flash while sitting on the ground.

"Raven, please bring M'gann here. We have to remove all the mental conditioning in his brain, and J'oon isn't in shape to do this. Send him rest at the same time."

Raven nodded and took the martian by the shoulder before teleporting. Two minutes later she reappeared with a martian girl. Miss Martian soon started her task.

"Why did you make her check? Don't believe in the power of an artifact created by the gods?" asked Diana raising her eyebrows.

"Better be safe than sorry. The bombs? How did it go? "asked Batman to his ex- protégé.

"It was a lure. He put a failsafe on it, even if the timer would have reached zero, they wouldn't have exploded. He got us good, the bombs were real, but the threat was non-existing. A good way to fool someone reading criminals expression to find the truth."

"Yes, but I don't think the judge would be as admirative." Replied Batman.

During this time, M'gaan was in Aiden mindscape focusing on her task but she found no traces of mind control left, however she found a shivering consciousness from where destruction and withering propagated from.

His mind was divided, between what he thought to be true and the reality of facts he just learnt.

(If I leave him in this state, he will suffer of severe mental illness in the future.)

Coming beside him, she bypassed the destructive energy that was powerless except if she deemed it as real and started to talk to him.

"Everything will be fine. You have to chose how to live from now on, this isn't the end. Help me help you." Taking him by the hand, she started to rebuild what he destroyed with his help.

Ten minutes later, she opened her eyes and informed her fellow heroes that she finished her task.

Soon, special transport from ARGUS created for transport of meta-human prisoners arrived on the scene and took Aiden into custody. He was transported to Belle Reve penitentiary when a boy with a cat appeared from a portal on the middle of the road, and after him came a man well known from A.R.G.U.S intel, Deathstroke. A mercenary wearing a black and orange mask and a suit of the same colors. He was equipped with guns and blade, unsheathing one of them he walked toward the convoy as the boy, Klarion used magic to strop it in his track.

"I let the guards conscious for you to play." Said the witch boy to his partner while caressing his cat.

The mercenary didn't answer as he started to commit a massacre, killing them one by one before exiting of the transport with an unconscious young man on his shoulder.

"Let's go." Said Klarion as he snapped his finger to open a red portal.

Passing through it, they disappeared in the silence of the night.

Aiden woke up several hours later with the worst headache of his life. He could barely move and didn't remembered after his conversation with Waller.

"What happened? I'm not in Belle Reve?!" He murmured while trying to raise his torso before falling back on the cold metal table he was laying on.

Turning his head slowly left and right, on the left he saw strange capsules the of the size of a human man, rocks he never saw on a desk and notes with mathematical equations written on it. On the right, he saw glassware for what could have been a chemical lab and several pictures of villains and super heroes he knew of.

Looking toward his wrist, he saw shackles, but it wasn't what was stopping him to raise himself. His body was weak, like never before, even when he was shot, he didn't felt so bad.

"You woke up, that's good. I wanted you to be awake as I made of you a slave of the light. Also, I wanted to say congrats for eliminating Waller, you had your vengeance and you disposed of a thorn in our side."

At these words, he had a flash in his mind, he saw Waller disappear into smoke.

"I killed her." He murmured.

"I just told you so. Wait, you don't remember?! What a shame, it was one of the best things I've seen ever." Said the boy, gloating. "Look at that, custom made for you. It took some time, a simple chip put in the brain like those used by Waller would have been useless as you could have destroyed it. So, here it is, a combination of technology and magic." He told him while creating some sort of red portal and taking out of it a red and black collar emitting a dangerous vibe.

Klarion walker over to Aiden and bended to put the collar to his neck, but opened his eyes wide as he was sent flying at the other end of the room.

A glowing yellow Egyptian ankh created of energy appeared on his chest and sent Klarion flying before encasing itself in Aiden torso. He felt a surge of warm current through his body, and his body and mind recovered all their strength.

"Nabu gave you a charm to protect you against magic?! That old geezer is always meddling with my business!" said the magician with hatred.

A voice he knew echoed and the room and said addressing to Klarion: "Leave the boy alone Klarion, or I'll step in and show you the might of a Lord of Order."

"Always so arrogant Nabu! Note my word, a day will come where I'll make you disappear from existence!" he said disappearing in a portal.

The voice of Doctor Fate didn't continue to talk, and Aiden now found himself alone in a building of a seemingly hostile organization, to top it all he didn't knew his location.

The only positive thing was that his energy was back and he felt stronger than ever before, if before he was tired after using his power to become invisible during one minute. Now, he could do it all day without breaking a sweat.

"Let's find a way out of here." He murmured raising up from the metallic table.

Scanning the building with his detection range, he discovered himself to be located underground. Walking through the corridor, alarm and red lights were triggered shortly after his escape from the laboratory.

Guards rushed toward him weapons in hand and shot at him, which were easily blocked with a telekinetic shied, or barrier. Launching a counter offensive, he pushed them with his telekinesis. That's what he wanted, but the effect was devastating, they were sent flying with tremendous force, most of them had broken bones but several of them had their burst upon impact with the wall.

"Me feeling stronger wasn't just a misconception. I'll have to be more careful from now on." Looking at the carnage he whispered to himself.

After two minutes flying and smashing of several armored security door, he finally saw the sky. Sun was rising in the sky.

"Dawn, and my last memories age from the afternoon. I was unconscious for a long time."

Rising in the sky, he asked himself this question. He had his vengeance, even if he doesn't know to feel about it. Everything he know about himself is a lie and he probably become one of the most wanted criminals of the planet.

"Fuh, what do I do now?"

End of Arc 1.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – Living incognito

* * *

**Olanchito, Honduras**

**6 months later**

Six months, this confrontation that made of him one of the most wanted persons on the planet happened six months ago. At first, he didn't remember it, his mind gone in overdrive, and all the powers kept in check by Rickmer's restriction were lifted at once. A pretty good reason to have your mind in shamble.

During these six months, reminiscence of these events came to his mind, and after his escape from the laboratory where he was brought to, he had several occasions to watch TV. The images broadcast on the news channels were impressive, Aiden literally razes a one-kilometer radius of Manhattan to the ground.

He had several occasions to test the new limits of his telekinesis. He could now reach the atomic scale, an impressive prowess, testing these limits was the most fun he had during these months. Destruction, separating molecules was pretty easy, a good push and it fall apart, it was like kicking a sandcastle or blowing a house of cards.

On the other hand, creation was insanely difficult, unlike destruction, he had to put atoms together one after the other to create the molecules. Then he had to put them together to create the good shape, but it requires millions, if not billions of it, in the end, while trying to create a glass, he passed out from exhaustion.

It 's been almost four months since he settled here in Honduras. Before coming, he made some research about all the countries of central America and finally chose Honduras.

Beautiful scenery, drugs lords running rampant, prostitution, extremely high criminality rate, and almost no sighting of Super Heroes, except maybe Flash once in a while. He was searching for a place where he could stay hidden, so a country where criminality was high and where there were no heroes was the best place. It could become his backyard, after his fight against the founding members of the Justice League, his confidence in his fighting abilities skyrocketed, even if he didn't really fight against Flash.

If he came earlier, the fight would have had another end. Who can fight against someone who can punch you several hundred times before you can react? Even with his precognition, he can't imagine himself winning with his previous limited abilities. Now, the odds were higher, but still not great.

Except this, no one came after him, maybe the Doctor Fate hidden him from tracking spell, because the Justice League didn't came knocking at his door. As for the tracker that Lex Luthor made him drink, he detected and destroyed it once he had a good grasp over his new powers.

"Hey, Daniel little brat. What kind of joke are you plotting today?" Leaving his house, he saw the boy he befriended in the four months since he came here.

"Nothing. I am perfect boy. The best of the best." He said grinning while watching Aiden preparing to leave his house.

The boy was around ten years old, with tanned skin, a bright smile and malicious eyes. He met him when he moved in. After organizing his affairs, which were literally holding in a bag pack, he heard knocking at his door, opening it, a bucket of water was spilled on him. He could have avoided it, but it was just a prank. Seeing the hidden boy giggling just under his window. He took a glass of water and spilled it on the boy.

"Gott'ya, little loser." He thought the boy would cry, or counter-attack, but he laughed so much he fell on his butt.

"What are you laughing at?"

"You. It's so funny. Your way of talking is hilarious." Pointing his finger at him, the boy said. In truth, Aiden's accent was absolutely horrible. After that incident, the boy helped Aiden practice his Spanish, and Aiden told him how it was to live abroad.

Aiden put on color contact lenses, dyed his hair blond and let them grow long during his travels before settling in Honduras. Today, he was wearing an old jean and a shirt with sunglasses hanging at his shirt collar.

"Why don't you cut your hairs? You look stupid." The boy said to him once again, it was his way to greet Aiden.

"You told this to me almost a million time since I moved in. When will you change your catchphrase?"

"When you will be cut your hair and you don't look like the creepy guy in the neighborhood anymore. I don't know how can my sister have a crush on you." That boy was nice but so irritating at the same time.

"Want to come with me to the market? I have to buy something to eat before starving to death." Locking the door behind him, he asked the prankster boy while ignoring his comments.

"Why not? Lucas is with his father doing business." Putting his hand behind his head, the boy followed him while whistling.

Passing through the streets, they watch the scenery around them. To Aiden who was born in the U.S, it was strange at first, the country his poor, and the criminality rate is not helping to improve the living conditions of the peoples.

(It's strange, at first, I almost felt at home. If Batman wasn't in Gotham, it would probably look like that.)

While walking, they passed by an old playground in a sorry state. They were climbing frames for children, broken in some places. Swings covered in rust, making a horrible sound when the wind pushed it. A bit further away, a sports field, with old goalposts covered in dust and above them basketball hoop frame suspended. One of them with a missing hoop.

Several boys were playing soccer on the playground with an old soccer ball.

"Eduardo, you could have told me you were playing soccer." Daniel, the little king of prank made his way toward his brother Eduardo.

"You were sleeping like a log. Wake up earlier next time." The boy said the other boy, with the ball in hand.

"Now I'm here. See you next time Creepy guy." He waved his hand at Aiden before kicking the ball out of his brother hands.

"I hope you'll lose."

Aiden made his way toward the market to buy fruits and maybe fishes. Life in Honduras was simple, most of the time. The only time Aiden had problems was when gang members attacked someone in the middle of the street while he was shopping.

That time, he chose to hide and let nature take it course. Since that fateful day six months ago, he was putting his vision of the world and his moral code in question. Everything changed, all he knew was false and he chose to re-evaluate his past and future.

What would he do? Hide for the rest of his life? Use his power to make money and become a tycoon here, away from his past? Create an alter-ego and become a hero? Everything was confused. So, he chose to take it slow to put this whole issue in perspective.

At the market, he bought several exotic fruits and talked with some people he became friend with in the time he was here. At the beginning his accent was an advantage, it makes people laugh.

He headed back home after buying everything he needed. On the way, he saw Daniel scoring before laughing at his brother. Too bad, he wouldn't be able to jest the boy.

However, he detected something disturbing not far away, a truck loaded with guns. Several cars were following them, probably other gang members. A hundred meters away, several armed persons were in ambush near the crossroad.

(Fuck!)

"Kids! Hurry and got home!"

"Why, you're annoying creepy g- "

Rattatata

With the sounds of gunshots, the children's started to disperse while crying, afraid to die. Aiden followed them, making sure none of them were running to their death.

Back home, he sat on his bed before turning on the old TV he bought in a pawnshop. His home sweet home was small but sufficing for one person. Changing the screen display to a U.S News channel. He watched as Lex Luthor was once again criticizing the Justice League and other heroes and vigilantes. It was recurrent since his battle in the middle of New-York, Luthor used the destruction created by the fight as an argument to undermine the Justice League popularity.

A well-played move, using him he created an opportunity to attack publicly superheroes. It was a good plan, but their popularity is overwhelming, consequently the situation between the Justice League and governments became strained. Luthor gained the support from political power holders and the peoples for the most parts were siding with heroes.

After his evasion, he saw the first speech of Luthor on this topic. Aiden always knew that Luthor was using him for something, but something was telling him it was not all. Luthor had something else in mind. He had no proof; it was just baseless instinct.

Sigh

"Let's see what is the argument of the League." Opening his laptop, he stole while he was on the run, he checked the arguments of the Justice League. Everything was as usual, same points, heroes save people, avoid destruction. The tormentor was a powerful foe, the damages New-York sustained were unfortunate, but if they didn't act one of the most populated cities of the world would have vanished.

"Hope the consequences of my mistake won't be irreparable." He said out loud while eating a fruit.

Browsing the Internet, he finally searches social networks and found no news of Jessica, his ex-girlfriend. Since the day he saw her so down at school, he was aching for what he did. Consequences fell on his loved ones.

He was checking her account almost every day to see if she was okay. Something he thought could be creepy. After the battle in New-York, she was left with the image of being the ex-girlfriend of one the most wanted person in the world. She was shunned for a long time, but finally she found hope. Two months ago, her social page indicated that she found a boyfriend.

The guy must be really in love with her, knowing the image she had at school and outside. Nonetheless, two weeks later she apparently decided to break up and move out of New-York to start her professional career in fashion. After that, there was no news about her on social network, which worried Aiden, but if there was a problem her adoptive parents would have reacted in some way.

"I'm starting to become paranoiac."

After that, he checked Trent and Barbara. Everything seems normal to their side, Trent lost some clients, but it was soon forgotten. Barbara was a couple with some guy named Dick Grayson for a time, but it didn't last and they broke up. Except that, she got a scholarship from a fund created by Bruce Wayne and become an intern in his company.

"The redhead finally became the top of the class. Only because I left." He sometimes remembers their jesting time with nostalgy, now he has an annoying prankster as his laughing partner.

The night soon came, and with start the troubles. After what happened this morning, he chose to put an end to the gang war, even if it means leaving no witness to keep his tranquil life.

Putting on a black sweat with a hood, he left his house and walked until he was far enough from the public lightings, in sort that no one see him taking off the ground. Saying that this town became his playground wasn't an exaggeration, with the release of the mental shackles six months ago, he became far more powerful. His detection range could now reach several kilometers, but he still had to process the information it provided him.

(A big workshop, that's where they process the drugs. North, a simple house…) He detected several dubious locations, but as he was searching for the headquarters of the several drugs lord, he sensed something happening in the middle of the town. A girl, maybe twelve years old, she was burning literally. She wasn't burned at stake, it was the awakening of a meta-gene, her body was creating flames around her and she couldn't control it, everything was burning around her.

Aiden landed ten-meter away from her while invisible and saw the scene. Someone was talking to her, maybe her father, the girl was slowly calming down as he starts calling her.

Aiden activated his precognition and saw it wouldn't end well…for the girl.

"Dad!" Finally controlling her flame, the young girl jumped in the arms of her father. While holding her, the man was grinning and knocked her out as she was feeling the warmth of her father.

"She is the key to my future! I'll finally become rich! That stupid daughter of mine finally make herself useful!" He was laughing as he betrayed his own daughter.

(This scene and this family betrayal are too familiar to me.)

He watched as the man seated his unconscious daughter in the car and started to drive toward the west end of Olanchito.

(What will he do? Try to sell her to some bastard with weird fetishes?) He was following the car from up in the air and was thinking to what kind of future this asshole was giving to his daughter.

Finally, they arrived at one of the locations Aiden marked as being a gang hideout. The man stopped in front of a grid fence, some goons start to talk to him and finally let him pass. Inside, he carried his daughter on his shoulder.

"Boss Ruiz, this girl is a meta-human, she created the fire downtow-"He couldn't finish his phrase as the boss raised his gun and shot him in the head.

(It was predictable.)

Looking at the dead body of the treacherous father with a bullet hole in the forehead, the gangster said: "Why should I pay you when I can take it from you freely?" Turning toward his men he told them "Dump the body somewhere, lock up the girl in the basement and go catch her mother. I don't want to be burned alive."

Two goons took hold of the hands of the body and began to drag it toward the exit, letting a bloody smear behind.

Aiden was about to step-in, but he felt something coming toward this location. It was flying in the sky at high speed, and in a few seconds came crashing through the ceiling.

A burning woman raised from the dust cloud created by the impact. She was entirely ablaze, and was emitting a burning heat in all the room. The woman was burning green literally, her light green flames were illuminating the dark hideout.

The woman created fireball in her hands and started to attack everyone.

The fight was soon over, she sent fireballs toward the goons, their clothes went ablaze. The poor guys soon started to roll on the ground, or were trying to remove their clothes. Most of them got slight burns, once out of danger, they ran away like rabbits.

Once she sent her fireballs toward them, she put out the fire around her. A beautiful form was revealed, that woman could have been a model. Around 5' 8" in height, light skin, green hairs and green glossy lips. She was wearing a green skintight suit with all sort shades of green and flames symbol.

(Fire, ex- Green Fire, ex-Green Fury. What is she doing here? She should be active in brazil not all of south America.)

Making her way toward the boss, she soon started to beat him up with her hand to hand skills, her style was really efficient. He was soon beaten to a pulp, a punch in the stomach, followed by a heavy kick on the knee and the coup de grâce, an uppercut sent him spinning.

(Why does her fighting style is similar to Batman? He taught her? Impressive, she doesn't rely only on her powers but learnt martial arts to mastery.)

Fire soon made her way to the little girl and wake her up. The girl was drowsy, and lost, seeing the knocked-out boss and the fire damages around, she became frightened.

"Where is my dad?" she asked to the beautiful woman in front of her.

A warm smile appeared on the face of the superheroine as she started to talk to the poor little girl. Lowering herself to the height of the child, she answered her inquiries.

"Hello, I'm Fire. I'm sorry, I couldn't save your father, but I'll take you to your mother. Don't worry, everything will be okay." Fire raised the weeping girl and hold her in her arms before creating fire around her foot and taking off the ground.

Still invisible, Aiden watched the superhero leave with doubt and worry in his mind.

(Strange, usually when meta-humans are discovered, they are brought to a specialized center first then their family are notified. She talked first about the girl's mother, not her powers. Furthermore, their powers are similar, there is a chance that she will make of her a sidekick. If I am right, I hope she will bring her to Brazil, I don't need superheroes in my hideout.

Fire arrived strangely fast, she was surely searching for a protégé since a long time, otherwise she wouldn't arrive so fast for the resolved of a girl case going out of control in the middle of Honduras.)

Looking at the moon by the hole created by Fire spectacular entrance, he chose to resolve the upcoming gang wars later.

(I'll settle this later. Tomorrow morning, I'm sure everyone will talk about Fire coming in this lost town. Let's not add the mysterious disappearance of several local drugs lord.)

Taking off the ground, he made his way back home and finally fell asleep in his bed. Aiden wanted to have a peaceful life for some time, but destiny had something else in mind for him.

**In this arc, we'll talk about Trent past, Jessica, Aiden true origins and several other things. Also, chapters will be shorter (around 2500 to 3000 words by chapter). Thanks for reading. **


End file.
